LI  BRARY 

OF  THE      - 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

OIKT    OK* 


Received   OCT  28  1892         ,  189     . 

*S 


OUR  CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 


OUR 


CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 


BY 


WM.  IL  HOLCOMBE,  M.D. 
IV 


PHILADELPHIA 
J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT    &    CO. 

1868. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1868,  by 
J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  &  CO., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania. 


LIPPINCOTT'S  PRESS, 
Philadelphia. 


TO  THOSE 

WHO   HAVE   BEEN    BEREAVED   OF  THEIR   CHILDREN. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGB 
IS  THERE  NO  LIGHT? 11 


CHAPTEE  II. 

HOW  ARE  THEY  RAISED? 41 

CHAPTEE  III. 

WHAT  BODIES  HAVE  THEY? 64 

CHAPTEE  IV. 

WHERE  DO  THEY  GO? 98 

CHAPTEE  V. 

WHO  TAKES  CARE  OF  THEM? 126 

CHAPTEE  VI. 

WHAT  ARE  THEY  DOING? 154 

CHAPTEE  VII. 

CAN  WE  COMMUNICATE? 182 

7 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PAGE 

WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT? 219 

CHAPTEE  IX. 

WHY  DID  THEY  DIE? 261 

CHAPTEE  X. 

WHAT  GOOD  CAN  COME  OF  IT? 302 


PREFACE. 


The  earliest  hour  of  the  summer  mornings  was  de- 
voted to  the  composition  of  this  little  book. 

The  time  was  one  of  approaching  lights  and  re- 
ceding shadows. 

It  is  now  the  same  hour  in  the  moral  world :  and 
my  subject  is  illumined  with  a  touch  of  that  Morn- 
ing which  cometh  after  the  Night. 

I  publish  it : 

Hoping  to  alleviate  the  sorrows  of  others  by  some 
thoughts  which  were  suggested  by  my  own : 

Hoping  also  to  lead  the  mind  of  my  reader,  by 
little  things  and  through  quiet  paths,  to  a  recognition 
of  the  Highest  Truth  yet  revealed  to  man. 

THE  AUTHOR. 

ORLEANS,  LA. 

A  *  9 


IN   IEAVEN. 


CHAPTER    I. 

IS  THERE  NO  LIGHT? 

WE  meet  with  few  circumstances  in  life  so  pain- 
ful, so  bewildering,  so  crushing  as  the  death 
of  a  little  child.  It  is  painful  to  the  sensibilities ; 
bewildering  to  the  understanding ;  crushing  to  the 
heart.  The  whole  man  is  wounded  by  the  blow. 

There  is  nothing  which  so  seems  to  violate  the 
order,  the  beauty,  we  may  say,  the  sanctity  of  na- 
ture and  the  laws  of  Heaven,  as  the  sickness  and 
suffering  of  a  little  child. 

How  tenderly  the  interest  of  the  whole  house 
centres  in  the  chamber  of  such  a  patient !  There 
are  no  pattering  feet  in  the  hall ;  no  busy  little 
hands  in  the  corners ;  no  merry  voices  on  the  stair- 
way; no  wild  shouts  in  the  garden.  The  play- 
room is  shut  up ;  the  books  and  the  toys  are  put 

>  11 


12  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

away.  The  parlor  is  dark  and  silent:  who  cares 
for  social  life  now? 

Every  one  steps  lightly  and  talks  softly.  The 
neighbors  inquire  at  the  door  and  turn  gently  away. 
No  little  playmates  are  admitted,  not  even  the  sun- 
beams; the  room  is  darkened.  Unteased,  unpetted, 
the  little  dog  cowers  under  the  chair;  the  kitten 
dozes  on  the  rug.  Even  the  canary  does  not  sing. 
The  house  is  very,  very  quiet.  Foreboding,  that 
spiritual  cloud,  impends  over  all. 

The  darling  of  the  parent's  heart,  the  centre 
now  of  all  thoughts  and  fears  and  prayers,  turns 
uneasily  on  a  bed  of  anguish.  The  golden  curls 
are  tangled  in  the  tossings.  The  sleepless  eyes  are 
bloodshot  with  fever ;  the  cheek  burns ;  the  brow 
aches;  the  little  heart  struggles  like  a  frightened 
bird.  All  is  wrong.  The  delicate  machinery  of 
those  wonderful  organs,  bound  together  in  the  body 
in  a  sacred  brotherhood  of  uses,  is  out  of  order. 
The  evil  spirits  of  discord  and  pain  are  holding 
carnival  in  the  seething  blood  and  the  tortured 
nerves.  How  piteous,  how  revolting ! 

And  the  victim?  Some  patient,  helpless,  little 
creature,  ignorant  of  sin,  innocent  of  wrong.  A 
few  days  ago  blooming  and  happy,  peering  forth 
with  loving  eyes  and  heavenly  greetings  into  the 


IS   THERE  NO  LIGHT?  13 

great  dark  world  before  it.  Now,  a  little  Isaac 
bound  upon  the  altar  of  sacrifice ;  no  ram  in  the 
thicket,  no  rescuing  angel  in  the  sky ! 

At  the  sight  of  such  cruel  violence,  such  terrible 
injustice,  we  are  ready  to  exclaim  with  the  Koman 
Governor,  as  he  turned  from  the  celestial  face  of 
Jesus  to  the  fiercely-accusing  and  malignant  Jews : 

"Why,  what  evil  hath  he  done?" 

The  machinery  of  our  cosmic  Nature  is  some- 
times ajar  also.  She  has  her  earthquakes,  her 
storms,  her  floods,  her  fires,  emblematic  of  the 
grandest  and  darkest  experiences  of  the  human 
soul.  Has  she  not  also  some  horrible  distortions 
in  her  tinier  realm  to  correspond  with  the  suffering 
and  death  of  children?  Is  there  any  exception  to 
the  ubiquity  and  the  tyranny  of  Evil?  Do  not 
death  and  sorrow  and  rapine  and  wrong  ravage 
also  the  infant  realms  of  her  shining  kingdoms? 
Do  not  her  fay  souls  consume  in  the  sunbeams,  and 
her  fairies  perish  in  the  meadows?  Are  there  not 
voices  of  anguish  and  terror,  which  we  cannot 
interpret,  in  the  sounds  of  her  winds  and  her 
waters? 

Days  and  nights  of  racking  disease  in  the  body 
of  the  little  patient — days  and  nights  of  corroding 

anxiety  in  the  hearts  of  the  watchers!     Oh,  the 
2 


14  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

struggle  betwixt  fear  and  hope !  the  exultation  of 
one  day,  the  despair  of  the  next!  These  are  the 
experiences  of  life;  these  are  the  watch  ings,  which 
give  a  "sober  coloring"  to  all  things  afterwards; 
which  bring  "the  faith  that  looks  through  death," 
and  such  tenderness  of  heart,  that 

" The  meanest  flower  that  blows  can  give 

Thoughts  that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears." 

The  house  grows  more  quiet  than  ever ;  almost 
a  desolation.  The  wearied,  loving  nurses  move 
ghost-like  to  and  fro.  A  little  light  shines  through 
the  shutters  all  night  long.  The  doctors  come  and 
go,  eagerly  expected,  long  delayed  at  the  door  with 
anxious  questionings.  The  shadow  deepens  over 
all  hearts.  The  shadow  deepens  also  over  the  little 
stream  of  life,  near  which  the  loving  ones  are  watch- 
ing. 7Tis  the  shadow  of  the  Great  Abyss  which  it 
slowly  approaches. 

And  now  the  brain  is  confused;  the  little  mind 
wanders;  the  child  is  delirious. 

Have  you  ever  watched  the  delirium  of  a  little 
child?  The  most  pitiful,  painful,  harrowing  thing 
in  all  the  phenomena  of  disease!  What  gentle 
Tassos  talking  to  angels  in  their  gloomy  prisons, 
what  pure  Ophelias  weaving  their  garlands  of  song 


IS   THERE  NO  LIGHT?  15 

and  madness,  ever  melted  the  soul  into  such  agony 
as  those  "sweet  bells,  jangled  and  out  of  tune,"  the 
dying  thoughts  of  little  children? 

The  doctor  has  ordered  a  warm  bath.  The  little 
fellow's  own  bath-tub  is  brought  to  the  bed-side, 
in  which  he  has  so  often  splashed  with  delight, 
rosy-faced  and  laughing-eyed  between  his  shower 
of  overhanging  curls.  The  eager,  heart-aching,  and 
trembling  mother  prepares  him  for  the  bath,  with 
gushing,  tender,  baby  words  reminding  him  of  his 
old  delights,  and  promising  him  such  a  happy  time. 
Alas!  it  is  all  changed  now.  The  busy  demon  of 
disease  has  defaced  the  texture  and  marred  the 
delicate  workings  of  that  little  brain.  The  child 
listens  to  nothing ;  remembers  nothing ;  understands 
nothing.  All  is  blurred,  distorted,  and  magnified. 
He  gazes  at  the  water  in  bewilderment,  screams  and 
clings  in  terror  to  his  mother's  knees. 

"Oh,  mamma,  mamma!  please — please  do  not 
throw  me  into  the  big  river." 

She  lifts  him  back  into  the  bed,  kisses  his  foie- 
head,  and  sinks  weeping  at  his  feet. 

The  little  girl  calls  wildly  and  eagerly  for  her 
papa.  He  rushes  to  her  side,  kisses  her  cheek, 
strokes  her  hair,  raises  her  sweet  little  hand  to  his 
lips,  addressing  her  by  all  the  tender  names  in 


16  OUR   CHILD  REN  IN  HEAVEN. 

which  love's  vocabulary  is  so  rich ;  but  all  in  vain. 
She  shrinks  from  him ;  she  iloes  not  know  him. 

"  I  want  my  own  papa.  You  are  not  my  papa. 
My  papa  is  not  an  old  man  with  a  long  gray  beard. 
No,  no,  no !  I  want  my  own  papa." 

Then  sinking  back,  she  folds  her  tiny  hands 
meekly  together,  and  looking  upwards,  like  the 
pictures  of  the  little  Samuel  praying,  she  strangely 
mingles  the  sweet  words  of  the  Lord's  prayer  with 
disjointed  ideas  of  her  playmates,  her  dolls,  and 
her  little  flower-garden. 

Ah!  don't  you  see  there  is  no  hope?  The  Angel 
of  Death  stands  there  invisible,  quietly  unraveling 
the  tangled  web  of  life,  intending  to  take  all  that 
is  beautiful  and  spiritual  in  it  away  with  himself. 

Do  you  remember  having  ever  seen  little  children 
a  short  while  before  they  sickened  and  died,  play- 
ing in  a  graveyard  on  a  bright,  summer  day?  You 
will  recall  something  strange  and  beautiful  in  their 
conduct,  for  "coming  events  cast  their  shadows  be- 
fore." They  seemed  in  love  with  the  spot,  flitting 
about  like  sunbeams  from  one  little  grave  to  another, 
joyously  but  softly  and  tenderly.  They  were  fas- 
cinated with  the  sculptured  angels  and  the  sleeping 
infants  and  the  white  lambs,  and  the  vases  and 
wreaths  of  flowers,  and  all  the  charming  little  me- 


IS  THERE  NO  LIGHT?  17 

mentoes  of  the  "vanished  hands"  and  "the  voices 
that  are  still."  They  were  loath  to  go  away,  as  if 
attracted  by  the  sphere  of  hundreds  of  invisible 
and  happy  little  spirits.  They  evidently  thought 
that  death  and  burial  were  pleasant  and  lovely 
things;  and  that  it  would  be  delightful  to  lay 
their  own  little  bodies  under  the  soft  green  turf, 
and  live  evermore  in  that  "happy  lano!,  far,  far 
away,"  of  which  they  were  accustomed  to  sing  so 
sweetly. 

Oh,  how  sweet,  how  painful  and  sweet  it  is  to 
stoop  and  bend,  day  after  day,  with  weary  care 
over  the  common  dust-heap  of  our  past  experiences, 
and  humming  old  tunes  to  ourselves,  and  thinking 
of  our  lost  hopes  and  buried  loves,  to  pick  out  the 
little  diamonds  of  memory  and  put  them  into  our 
bosoms ! 

A  strange  time  is  it  from  midnight  to  cock-crow- 
ing— a  dark,  sad,  silent,  fearful  time,  when  evil 
spirits  and  evil  men  are  abroad ;  when  the  world 
lies  cold  and  dim,  and  the  heavens  are  afar  off; 
the  time  for  murders,  and  thefts,  and  ghost-walk- 
ings, and  for  strange  and  secret  crimes ;  and  espe- 
cially the  time  for  pestilence  to  strike  and  for  death 
to  seize.  The  temperature  of  the  earth  declines 
rapidly,  and  darkness,  that  hateful  thing,  reaches 

2* 


OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

its  climax.  The  night-dews  come  out  everywhere 
like  cold  drops  upon  nature's  brow. 

Then  it  is  the  great  cry  is  made,  "  the  bridegroom 
cometh !" 

Then  it  is  the  human  spirit  lays  its  heavy  burden 
down,  and  sleeps,  to  experience  "  another  morn  than 
ours." 

Then  it  is  we  hear  the  wild  shrieks  of  the  be- 
reaved Rachels,  refusing  to  be  comforted. 

After  midnight  the  vital  current  grows  sluggish 
and  shallow,  soon  to  disappear  among  the  quick- 
sands of  death.  The  eyes  become  dim ;  and  oh, 
fearful  change !  the  soul-light  fades  from  the  face. 
The  nearest  watcher  suddenly  whispers,  "dead;" 
the  father  inquires  tremulously,  "  dead  ?"  the  kneel- 
ing mother  shrieks  wildly,  "  dead !"  The  pent-up 
anguish  of  all  hearts  now  bursts  out  into  loud  wails 
of  grief.  The  doors  are  opened;  the  house  is 
awakened;  there  is  anxious  running  to  and  fro; 
and  all  is  movement  and  bustle  where  everything 
was  lately  so  fearfully  still.  In  the  midst  of  it  all, 
a  strange,  calm,  luminous  halo  seems  to  settle  down 
upon  the  little  corpse,  as  if  the  invisible  God  had 
waved  his  hands  in  blessing  over  the  face  of  the 
dead  child. 

Yes!   there   lies   the  Deserted  House.     It  was 


IS  THERE  NO  LIGHT?  19 

builded  of  the  earth,  and  has  fallen  again  to  the 
ground.  Life  and  Thought  have  gone  away,  side 
by  side.  All  is  dark  within.  JS"o  light  in  the 
window;  no  murmur  at  the  door.  No  more  of 
mirth  or  merry-making  sound.  All  is  naked, 
vacant,  deserted.  Close  the  shutters;  close  the 
door.  Come  away !  come  away ! 

Ah,  Poet !  thou  hast  done  well. 

Thou  too,  Artist!  hast  sweetly  echoed  the  Poet's 
thought.  See  that  long,  low  couch  in  the  silent 
room,  bearing  the  still  form,  covered  with  a  snow- 
white  cloth.  The  little  lute  with  its  broken  string 
has  fallen  to  the  floor.  There  are  lovers  who  kiss 
by  the  wall ;  but  they  are  statues  of  cold  marble. 
A  terraced  garden  is  seen  through  the  doorway; 
but  it  has  no  living  presence.  Out  through  the 
arched  window  the  angels  of  Life  and  Thought 
have  receded  into  the  far  sunlight.  How  still ! 
how  cold!  This  is  not  sleep,  but  his  brother, 
Death! 

This  is  beautiful,  and  it  is  true;  but  it  is  not  all. 
It  is  not  half  the  truth.  It  is  little;  it  is  nothing. 
In  the  white  presence  of  this  precious  little  body, 
which  will  never  open  its  enchanting  eyes  nor  lift 
its  beautiful  hand  again,  we  feel  that  Art  can  never 
utter  the  incommunicable  sorrows  of  the  soul, 


20  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

It  is  the  reflection  of  Vesuvius  on  the  moon-lit 
bay  of  Naples,  as  Richter  has  said,  in  comparison 
with  that  Vesuvius  which  burned  into  the  heart 
in  the  buried  chambers  of  Pompeii. 

Confronted  thus  with  death  in  its  least  account- 
able form,  we  stand  bewildered  with  the  mystery 
of  Life ;  and  "  obstinate  questionings"  about  God 
and  Spirit  and  Time  and  Immortality  flow  through 
our  souls,  like  the  night-ripples  of  forlorn  rivers 
struggling  eastward  in  the  dark. 

There  is  no  separation  in  nature  attended  with 
such  a  sense  of  abrupt  departure,  absence,  distance, 
utter  and  eternal  abstraction,  as  that  of  friend  from 
friend  at  the  bed  of  death.  All  other  farewells 
have  images  that  fade  on  the  sight,  or  echoes  that 
die  on  the  ear.  But  in  this  there  is  no  trace,  or 
token,  or  footprint,  or  sound,  or  shadow,  which  can 
even  suggest  to  us  which  way  our  Beloved  One  has 
gone.  At  one  moment  we  are  gazing  in  at  the  win- 
dows of  heaven,  which  lead  through  spiritual 
realms  of  affection  and  thought,  all  the  way  up  to 
the  great  Source  of  life :  the  next,  the  windows  are 
closed,  and  we  are  confronting  dead  nature  alone ; 
and  the  dust  that  is  left  of  our  friend  has  no  more 
genuine  connection  with  him  than  if  it  were  a 
statue  or  a  flower. 


IS  THERE  NO  LIGHT?  21 

The  bank  of  the  mystical  Jordan  which  separates 
the  wilderness  of  this  life  from  the  Canaan  of  a 
better,  is  rimmed  with  total  darkness.  Our  dear 
ones  approach  the  dreaded  verge  and  disappear  from 
our  sight.  We  peer  in  vain  into  the  terrible  abyss. 
The  sensation  is  perhaps  the  same  to  them  that  it 
is  to  us.  To  their  reverted  eyes  we  may  seem  also 
to  have  been  swallowed  up  in  sudden  night.  An 
immeasurable  wall  of  blackness  divides  us.  Cries, 
calls,  prayers,  however  importunate  and  heart- 
breaking from  one  party  to  the  other,  strike  back 
only  in  wailing  echoes  upon  themselves. 

Why  is  this?  Was  it  always  so?  Will  it  al- 
ways be  so  ?  With  uplifted  hands  and  eager  voices 
and  aching  hearts,  we  cry  to  the  heavens — Is  there 
no  Light? 

From  the  stand-points  of  the  old  Theology  all 
is  darkness.  Notwithstanding  the  visions  of  poets, 
the  speculations  of  philosophers,  the  achievements 
of  science  and  reason,  the  ecstasies  of  prophet  and 
seer,  the  wisdom  of  churches,  and  the  light  of 
Revelation,  the  life  after  death  is  as  much  a  mys- 
tery as  ever.  The  Apostolic  Church  declares  that 
the  Gospel  has  brought  life  and  immortality  to 
light ;  but  its  dim  intimations  teach  us  as  little  of 
the  great  Hereafter,  asJjj^HBnaSSjjLpf  the  ocean- 


[THUVEHSITT; 


22  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

shell  tell  us  of  the  Sea.  What  can  its  foremost 
and  wisest  man  show  us  of  the  whereabouts  of  this 
little  departed  spirit?  of  its  present  form  and  na- 
ture ?  of  its  habitat  and  surroundings  ?  of  its  asso- 
ciates and  occupations  ?  of  its  mode  of  living  and 
means  of  development? 

The  Word  of  God,  so  perfect  in  its  moral  law,  so 
wonderful  in  its  letter,  so  heavenly  in  its  spirit, 
makes  no  specific  and  detailed  revelations  of  the 
state  of  man  after  death.  Its  dealings,  so  far  as  it 
has  yet  been  made  clear  to  us,  are  with  the  rela- 
tions between  God  and  the  human  soul.  "Eye  hath 
not  seen,  ear  hath  not  heard,"  are  the  words  of  the 
Prophet  repeated  by  the  Apostle,  exalting  hope 
by  their  vague  sublimity,  but  stifling  imagination 
at  its  birth. 

Neither  those  who  were  sent  from  the  other 
world  to  this,  nor  those  whose  spiritual  eyes  were 
opened  from  this  world  into  the  other,  have  paused 
from  their  high  missions  to  gratify  the  yearning 
curiosity  of  the  human  heart,  and  to  answer  those 
children's  questions,  springing  from  our  intuitive 
thirst  for  the  spiritual  knowledge  we  most  need, 
and  before  which  the  sages  of  all  countries  arc 
Bilent. 

Moses  and  Elias,  conversing  with  our  Lord  on 


IS  THERE  NO  LIGHT?  23 

the  Mount,  let  fall  no  secrets  of  their  glorious 
dwelling-place  into  the  eager  ears  of  the  astonished 
disciples.  Lazarus,  recalled  after  four  days  from 
the  spiritual  world,  has  as  little  to  say  as  if  he  had 
only  been  awakened  from  a  deep  sleep.  Those  who 
"  came  out  of  their  graves"  during  the  wonderful 
commotions  which  followed  the  death  and  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ,  told  no  tales  or  left  no  records  of 
their  supernatural  experiences. 

The  eloquent  Paul,  descending  from  the  third 
heaven,  eloquent  no  longer,  declares  that  the  things 
heard  and  seen  were  incommunicable  to  man. 

And  John  the  Beloved,  the  Celestial,  displaying 
his  apocalyptic  scroll,  overwhelms  us  with  his  gor- 
geous visions  of  the  Holy  City,  with  its  golden 
streets,  and  gates  of  pearl,  and  rivers  of  life ;  but 
we  cannot  see  the  forms  of  our  little  ones  in 
his  great  multitudes,  "which  no  man  can  num- 
ber;" nor  detect  their  little  voices  amid  the 
stupendous  sounds  of  the  "many  waters"  and 
the  "mighty  thunderings,"  and  the  never-ending 
"  Alleluias." 

The  Delectable  Mountains  of  the  old  faith  are 
too  cold  and  far.  From  our  valley  of  humiliation 
we  sometimes  catch  glimpses  of  them,  shining  in 
the  light  of  God,  with  awful,  inaccessible  serenity ; 


24  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

but  frequently,  very  frequently,  their  forms  are  dis- 
torted by  mists  of  doubt  or  hidden  by  clouds  of 
despair.  We  need  some  great  spiritual  telescope  to 
bring  them  near  to  us  in  all  their  beautiful  reality. 
We  yearn  to  see  their  green  slopes  and  their  golden 
valleys ;  their  radiant  domes  and  their  happy  peo- 
ple. Is  it  impossible? 

This  is  the  great  spiritual  want  of  the  century, 
overshadowing  all  others.  A  clear,  consistent, 
philosophical,  authorized  revelation  of  the  life  after 
death.  No  additions  to  the  Word  of  God,  but  an 
interior  view  of  its  structure,  so  that  the  relation 
between  the  letter  and  the  spirit  shall  be  rationally 
unfolded.  Statements  of  the  facts  and  phenomena 
of  the  spiritual  world,  embodying  a  true  psychology, 
free  from  theoretical  phantasies,  and  solving  the 
vexed  question  of  the  connection  between  mind  and 
matter.  In  short,  a  revelation  to  explain  the  Reve- 
lation, to  open  the  seal,  to  render  it  practical  and 
perfect — including  the  grounds  and  laws  of  its  own 
appearance,  and  the  reasons  why  it  was  not  made 
before,  and  why  it  is  not  now  made  in  some  other 
manner. 

The  heart  of  the  Christian  Church  yearns  after 
these  things,  as  its  ideal  of  a  perfected  and  crowned 
Christianity  to  reign  upon  the  earth  for  ever.  This 


IS   THERE  NO  LIGHT?  25 

would  indeed  rescue  it  from  its  gradual  disinte- 
gration, give  it  the  creative  power  and  glory  of 
heavenly  light,  and  save  the  world  from  practical 
infidelity,  which  is  Death,  the  rider  of  the  Pale 
Horse,  after  whom  follows  Hell.  But  the  brain 
of  the  Christian  Church  has  not  been  taught  to 
expect  this  great  thing,  but  rather  not  to  expect  it; 
to  expect  nothing,  indeed,  but  the  dissolution  of 
the  physical  universe  in  elemental  fire.  Stupendous 
mistake !  There  are  errors  so  vast  and  all-pervading 
in  their  influence  on  the  human  mind,  that  only  in- 
dividuals can  be  emancipated  from  their  thraldom. 
They  rule  with  a  rod  of  iron  over  nations  and 
churches  and  races,  and  only  wither  and  die  down 
during  the  weary  length  of  suffering  and  darkened 
ages. 

The  bereaved  mother  kneels  by  the  dead  body 
of  her  child,  chafing  its  hands,  stroking  its  hair, 
calling  it  pet  names,  showering  sudden  kisses  un- 
returned  on  its  little  cold  face.  In  the  presence  of 
such  imperious  woe,  the  true  friend  does  not  reason : 
he  weeps. 

Now  mark  the  inquiries  which  her  affections  put 
to  her  understanding — the  yearning,  intuitive,  im- 
portunate cries  for  light,  which  a  religion  calling 
itself  a  revealed  religion  ought  to  stand  ready  to 

3  B 


26  OVR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN 

answer:  Where  is  my  child?  What  form  has  he? 
Is  he  really  living?  Does  he  see,  feel,  hear,  think, 
and  move  as  before?  Who  have  taken  charge  of 
him?  What  are  they  doing  with  him?  What  is 
he  doing  himself?  Is  he  satisfied?  Why  can 
I  not  see  him  and  commune  with  him?  Why 
was  he  taken  ? 

A  loving  mother,  bereft  of  her  innocent  offspring 
by  the  terrible  agencies  of  evil  and  death,  has  an 
inalienable  right  to  ask  these  questions,  and  to  have 
them  answered.  She  has  a  right  also  to  measure 
the  truthfulness  and  credibility  of  a  church  by- its 
capability  of  answering  these  questions.  Blind 
herself,  she  may  wisely  refuse  to  be  led  by  the 
blind.  God  designed  that  the  answers  to  these 
natural  and  proper  questions  should  be  in  every 
mouth,  should  shine  like  sunbeams  into  every  heart. 
The  world  knew  them  once;  the  church  understood 
them.  Like  innocence  and  peace  and  goodness  and 
all  the  glories  of  Eden,  these  beautiful  answers  have 
been  lost — lost  and  forgotten.  They  do  not  even 
return  in  dreams. 

Why  were  they  lost?  Why  are  they  not  re- 
stored ? 

Is  any  aching  heart  ever  satisfied  with  the  com- 
monplaces of  theological  condolence  ?  u  The  Lord 


IS  THERE  NO  LIGHT*  27 

gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away,"  is  not  an 
infallible  quietus  to  our  wounded  affections  and  our 
revolted  reason.  We  are  not  satisfied  with  bless- 
ings which  come  in  the  disguise  of  painful  and 
fearful  calamities.  Our  minds  are  confused  with 
the  ascription  of  all  things,  both  good  and  evil,  to 
the  same  omnipotent  Providence.  We. are  over- 
whelmed with  its  mysterious  ways  and  inscrutable 
designs  and  unfathomable  perplexities.  And  when 
we  fail  to  derive  any  light  or  comfort  from  the 
teachings  of  the  church,  after  honest  and  prayer- 
ful strivings,  we  are  not  willing  to  believe  that  the 
sole  cause  of  our  blindness  is  the  unregenerate  state 
of  our  own  hearts. 

What  good  does  it  do  us  to  be  told  that  our  be- 
loved child  is  now  a  disembodied  spirit  about  the 
throne  of  God,  engaged,  as  the  angels  are  supposed 
always  to  be,  in  ecstatic  contemplation  of  the  Divine 
perfections  ?  Or  that  she  sleeps  in  the  cold,  cold 
ground  under  the  watchful  eyes  of  guardian  angels, 
until  the  great  trumpet  shall  wake  her  from  the 
dead? 

How  long  are  we  to  be  fed  on  husks  ?  Is  there 
not  bread  enough  in  our  Father's  house,  and  to 
spare? 

Suppose  an  Angel   of  Light  were  suddenly  to 


28  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

appear,  divinely  commissioned,  at  the  side  of  the 
grieving  mother,  illumining  her  vision  with  his 
radiant  presence,  and  showering  upon  her  the  great, 
white  calm  which  is  the  atmosphere  of  the  celestial 
country.  Suppose  he  were  to  take  her  by  the  hand, 
and  with  ineffable  tenderness  of  spirit  and  beauty 
of  illustration,  to  exhibit  in  the  sacred  light  of 
truth  itself,  the  exact  state,  present  and  prospec- 
tive, of  the  little  soul  which  has  just  escaped  from 
its  earthly  body. 

How  sweet  to  follow  the  little  sunbeam  away 
into  heaven,  its  real  home !  away  from  the  cloud 
it  has  left  behind  it  so  dark  and  cold !  from  the 
little  cloud  which  it  here  illumined  with  ethereal 
beauty ! 

He  explains  to  her  the  nature  of  death,  which 
is  the  resurrection.  He  shows  her  the  beautiful 
spiritual  body  rising  out  of  its  natural  form,  in 
which  it  was  imbedded  during  the  short,  happy 
time  it  lived  with  us.  He  tells  her  that  her  little 
one  is  still  in  the  glorious  human  form,  the  image 
of  God;  and  still  sees,  hears,  feels,  walks,  eats,  sleeps, 
grows;  is  clothed  and  taught,  loves  and  is  loved, 
all  just  as  before — yesterday  and  to-morrow  being 
the  same.  The  life  to  come  is  a  continuation  of 
this  life,  as  a  flower  is  a  continuation  of  the  stem. 


IS  THERE  NO   LIGHT?  29 

He  shows  her  what  heaven  is  and  where  it  is ; 
who  the  Lord  is  and  where  He  is ;  by  whom  and 
how  her  child  is  received  and  cared  for.  He  de- 
scribes the  realities  of  heaven ;  not  only  its  prayers 
and  hymnings,  bat  the  palaces,  the  gardens,  the 
lawns,  the  light,  the  music,  the  lessons,  the  teach- 
ers, the  companions,  the  amusements,  the  peace, 
the  love,  the  beauty,  the  everyday  life  and  busi- 
ness of  heaven.  Pie  speaks  thus,  not  from  specu- 
lation, but  experience :  "  as  one  having  authority, 
and  not  as  the  scribes." 

His  great,  calm,  sweet  words  fall  upon  her  heart 
like  music;  like  the  harp  of  David  on  the  spirit  of 
Saul.  They  shine  into  her  understanding  like  light 
falling  into  prison  glooms  unvisited  by  the  sun. 
She  is  born  into  a  new  world  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing. This  vast,  sustaining,  illuminating  power  of 
direct  revelation  does  not  crush  or  change  the  na- 
tural affections.  It  softens  and  elevates  and  puri- 
fies and  spiritualizes  them.  The  tears  she  sheds 
are  as  many  as  before,  but  not  so  bitter.  The  sad- 
ness of  earthly  memories  is  henceforth  lightened  by 
a  sweet,  over-brooding  sense  of  the  reality  and 
proximity  of  a  happy  spiritual  world.  Her  heart 
will  still  ache,  with  that  aching  which  knows  no 
cure  but  reunion,  fqr  she  is  beycavecj  of  her  child ; 


30  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

but  she  will  no  longer  murmur  or  rebel.  She  will 
do  like  David,  when  the  servants  told  him  his  child 
was  dead : 

"  And  he  arose  from  the  earth  and  washed  him- 
self, and  changed  his  apparel,  and  went  into  the 
house  of  the  Lord  and  worshiped." 

Just  what  we  suppose  the  Lord  to  have  done  in 
this  case  by  the  special  ministry  of  an  angel,  He 
has  now  done  for  the  church  and  the  wrorld.  The 
fulness  of  time  has  come,  when  the  mysteries  of  the 
kingdom  need  no  longer  be  clothed  in  parables  and 
shrouded  in  "  dark  sayings  of  old."  The  "  open- 
ing of  the  heavens"  promised  by  the  Lord  himself 
is  upon  us.  The  air  of  the  world  is  tremulous 
with  ancestral  voices  prophesying  change.  The 
heart  of  humanity  is  expectant.  A  new  Era  of 
Science  and  Development,  exclaims  the  philosopher ! 
The  "New  Heavens  and  the  New  Earth,"  whispers 
the  Christian.  Some  say,  "  Lo !  here !" — others, 
"Lo!  there!" 

Meanwhile  the  great  event,  with  which  the  womb 
of  time  had  been  pregnant,  takes  place.  It  comes 
in  a  manner  unexpected  by  all  men,  and  is  not  rec- 
ognized. Some,  like  Herod,  would  stifle  the  young 
child  at  once.  Some  mock;  most  are  indifferent;  a 
few  believe.  The  High  Priests  and  Scribes  and  all 


IS   THERE  NO  LIGHT?  31 

the  old  Oracles  move  on  as  before,  unconscious  that 
their  systems  and  philosophies  are  death-stricken. 
The  light  has  come.  But  the  blind  will  not  see  it : 
for  do  not  all  things  move  in  circles,  and  the  old 
facts  perpetually  recur? 

"  The  Light  shineth  in  darkness,  and  the  dark- 
ness comprehended  it  not." 

A  new  intercourse  between  the  spiritual  and  na- 
tural worlds  has  been  established.  The  heavens 
have  been  opened :  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  revealed :  the  foundation  of  a  new  and 
everlasting  Church  has  been  laid.  The  true  nature 
of  the  human  soul  and  of  its  connection  with  the 
human  body  and  with  attendant  spirits,  that  grand 
Psychology  for  which  the  heart  of  man  has  yearned 
for  so  many  ages,  is  now  unfolded.  The  laws  and 
phenomena  of  the  world  of  spirits,  of  heaven  and 
hell,  the  veritable  facts,  and,  as  it  were,  the  manners 
and  customs  of  the  life  after  death,  have  been  clearly 
made  known.  The  children's  questions  are  an- 
swered. Science  and  Philosophy  are  satisfied :  the 
Bible  is  vindicated-:  the  Light  has  come ! 

When  and  where  and  by  whom  was  this  stu- 
pendous Revelation  effected  ?  Not  a  court  in  Eu- 
rope, not  a  Church  in  Christendom,  not  a  philo- 
sophic Academy,  not  a  scientific  body,  has  acknow- 


32  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

ledgcd  its  claims  or  recognized  its  existence.  Can 
the  Eternal  God  make  a  revelation  of  his  "Will  and 
his  Word  to  his  creatures,  and  the  event  not  stir  a 
ripple  on  the  surface  of  human  society  ?  The  fact 
is  strange  indeed,  but  it  is  not  without  precedent. 
The  same  God  once  visited  this  earth  in  person, 
with  divine  truth  in  his  mouth  and  miraculous 
power  in  his  hand,  at  the  golden  period  of  blended 
Greek  and  Roman  civilization ;  and  He  was  cruci- 
fied as  an  obscure  impostor!  If  they  kill  the  Son 
himself,  will  they  not  stone  his  Prophets  and  in- 
sult his  Messengers  ? 

How  are  revelations  made  from  heaven  except 
by  human  mediums  ?  „  Angels  never  speak  to  mul- 
titudes, but  to  individuals.  God  prepares  certain 
pi  votal  or  representati  ve  men  for  his  work.  Whether 
it  be  Noah  or  Abraham  or  Moses  or  John  or 
Paul  or  another,  every  Dispensation  has  its  begin- 
ning through  a  human  medium ;  and  this  medium 
is  almost  invariably  discredited  by  his  brethren  and 
persecuted  by  the  world.  Was  it  indeed  ever 
otherwise  ?  How  strangely  forgetful  of  history  are 
those  who  imagine  that  a  modern  Prometheus, 
bringing  new  fire  and  light  from  heaven  to  men, 
could  be  received  by  them  in  any  spirit  but  that  of 
scoffing  incredulity ! 


IS  THERE  NO  LIGHT?  33 

The  Lord  has  in  these  latter  times  prepared  a 
man,  through  whom  he  has  revealed  the  spiritual 
sense  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  laws  and  phenom- 
ena of  the  Spiritual  Life :  the  richest  boon  yet  con- 
ferred on  the  human  race.  He  was  organized  and 
trained  from  his  birth  for  his  wonderful  mission. 
He  co-existed  consciously  for  many  years,  as  we  all 
do  unconsciously,  in  both  the  spiritual  and  natural 
worlds.  He  met  and  conversed  with  angels  and 
spirits  as  with  men,  and  he  recorded  in  one  world 
what  he  saw  and  heard  in  the  other.  He  is  the 
John  the  Baptist  of  a  New  Dispensation,  preparing 
the  way  of  our  Lord  at  his  Second  Coming. 

Then  arises  the  old  doubt  and  incredulity,  the 
sense  of  impossibility  that  one  who  lives  under  the 
same  physical  conditions  with  ourselves  can  enjoy 
any  spiritual  insight  not  common  to  us  all.  Is 
not  this  the  son  of  the  carpenter,  and  are  not  his 
brothers  and  sisters  still  with  us?  On  this  old 
ground  every  new  truth  is  for  a  while  rejected. 
But  it  matters  not.  The  laws  of  Providence  are 
the  geometry  of  heaven.  Nothing  fails  in  its  right 
time  and  in  the  right  place.  When  the  Hour  comes, 
the  Man  also  appears. 

But  why  should  this  individual  be  so  favored 

above  his  fellows  ?     Simply  because  it  is  necessary 
B* 


34  OUR"  CHILDREN  IN  HE  A  YEN. 

and  proper.  Homers,  Platos,  Caesars,  Dantes,  Shak- 
speares,  Newtons,  are  not  accidents.  Their  coming 
is  as  fixed  and  certain  as  the  movement  of  the  tides 
or  the  planets.  Prophets,  Apostles,  and  Seers  are 
created  for  the  spiritual  exigencies  of  the  race.  One 
must  do  the  work  for  millions.  Individual  reve- 
lations to  all  men  are  at  present  impracticable. 
Now,  as  in  the  ancient  days,  only  Moses  and  Aaron 
can  go  up  into  the  mountain  to  receive  communi- 
cations from  God.  The  people  and  the  priests 
must  not  come  near  the  mountain  to  touch  it,  nor 
to  "break  through  unto  the  Lord  to  gaze,'7  lest 
they  perish. 

Swedenborg  thus  avows  his  extraordinary  claim : 
"  The  arcana  which  are  revealed  in  the  following 
pages  relate  to  heaven  and  hell,  and  to  the  life  of 
man  after  death.  The  members  of  the  church  at 
this  day  know  scarcely  any  thing  about  heaven  and 
hell,  or  about  their  own  life  after  death, — although 
these  things  are  all  described  in  the  Word.  Many, 
though  born  within  the  church,  even  deny  their 
existence,  saying  in  their  hearts,  Who  hath  returned 
from  them  and  declared  the  fact  ? 

"  Lest,  therefore,  such  a  negative  state,  which 
prevails  mostly  with  those  who  possess  much 
worldly  wisdom,  should  also  infect  and  corrupt  the 


IS  THERE  NO  LIGHT?  35 

simple  in  heart  and  faith,  I  have  been  permitted  to 
enter  the  society  of  angels,  and  to  converse  with 
them  as  one  man  converses  with  another,  and  also 
to  see  the  things  which  exist  in  heaven  and  in 
hell.  I  have  enjoyed  this  privilege  for  a  period  of 
thirteen  years;  and  I  am  now  permitted  to  describe 
the  heavens  and  the  hells  from  the  testimony  of 
my  own  sight  and  hearing,  in  the  hope  that  igno- 
rance may  be  thus  enlightened  and  incredulity  dis- 
sipated." 

Fourteen  years  pass  away,  during  which  Sweden- 
borg  wrote  and  published  a  great  deal,  maintaining 
an  unquestioned  reputation  for  learning,  wisdom, 
and  virtue. 

Subsequent  to  this  he  again  emphatically  de- 
fines his  position : 

"  I  foresee  that  many  who  read  the  Memorable 
Kelations  in  this  work  will  believe  them  to  be 
fictions  of  the  imagination ;  but  I  protest  in  truth 
that  they  are  not  fictions,  but  were  really  heard 
and  seen.  Not  seen  and  heard  in  any  state  of  the 
mind  in  sleep,  but  in  a  state  of  complete  wakeful- 
ness  ;  for  it  has  pleased  the  Lord  to  manifest  him- 
self to  me,  and  to  send  me  to  teach  those  things 
which  belong  to  his  New  Church,  which  is  meant 
by  the  New  Jerusalem  in  the  Revelation.  For  this 


OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

purpose  He  has  opened  the  interiors  of  my  mind  or 
spirit;  by  which  privilege  it  has  been  permitted 
me  to  be  with  angels  in  the  spiritual  world  and 
with  men  in  the  natural  world  at  the  same  time, 
and  that  now  for  twenty-seven  years." 

In  the  trying  and  honest  hour  of  death  the  great 
Seer  bore  unquailing  witness  to  the  truth  of  his 
wonderful  mission.  A  worthy  Lutheran  clergy- 
man was  called  in  to  administer  the  holy  com- 
munion to  the  dying  man.  He  observed  to  him, 
"  That  as  many  persons  thought  he  had  endeavored 
only  to  make  himself  a  name  by  his  New  Theo- 
logical System,  he  would  do  well  now  to  publish 
the  truth  to  the  world,  and  to  recant  either 
the  whole  or  a  part  of  what  he  had  advanced, 
since  he  had  now  nothing  to  expect  from  the 
world,  which  he  was  so  soon  about  to  leave  for 
ever." 

"  On  hearing  these  words,  Swedenborg  raised  him- 
self half-upright  in  bed,  and  placing  the  hand  that 
was  not  paralyzed  upon  his  breast,  said  with  great 
zeal  and  emphasis : 

"As  true  as  you  sec  me  before  you,  so  true  is 
every  thing  I  have  written.  I  could  have  said 
more  had  I  been  permitted.  When  you  come  into 
eternity,  you  will  see  all  things  as  I  have  stated 


IS  THERE  NO  LIGHT?  37 

and  described  them ;  and  we  shall  have  much  to 
say  concerning  them  to  each  other." 

This  was  the  closing  scene.  He  retained  his 
splendid  faculties  to  the  last.  Plow  inapplicable 
is  our  shocking  word,  death,  to  such  a  departure ! 
He  who  had  lived  with  both  angels  and  men,  was 
simply  removed  from  men  to  live  with  angels  for 
ever. 

Swedenborg's  System  of  "Religious  Philosophy, 
based  upon  a  revealed  spiritual  interpretation  of 
the  Word  of  God,  must  stand  upon  its  own  merits. 
It  is  seen,  like  the  sun,  by  its  own  light,  and  not 
by  the  light  of  another.  Still,  it  is  pleasant  to  those 
who  receive  it  as  the  doctrinal  basis  of  a  New  Dis- 
pensation of  Divine  Truth,  to  think  that  the 
medium  or  herald  by  whoni  it  came,  was  one  so 
worthy  of  his  transcendent  office ;  a  man  of  such 
varied  culture;  such  multiform  wisdom;  such  prac- 
tical and  industrious  utilities;  of  such  abounding 
Christian  virtues,  and  of  such  a  tender  and  rever- 
ential spirit. 

There  are  no  traces  of  imposture  or  fanaticism  or 
insanity  in  the  life  or  the  writings  of  this  man.  All 
the  elements  of  credibility  meet  in  his  claims  with 
the  most  extraordinary  power.  Not  the  least  of 
these  is  the  fact,  that  he  teaches,  as  no  man  ever 


38  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

taught  before,  the  Supreme  Divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  Whoever  builds  upon  this  sure  foun- 
dation is  not  likely  to  build  in  vain. 

This  little  volume  is  not  designed  to  explain 
or  to  advocate  the  doctrines  of  Swedenborg.  Our 
task  is  a  far  humbler  one.  We  intend  to  take 
all  his  statements  for  granted,  and  to  repeat  what 
he  has  said  about  .the  heavenly  country,  so  far  as  it 
may  enable  the  reader  to  follow  our  lost  ones  into  the 
spiritual  realm.  A  small,  small  part  indeed  of  the 
treasures  of  New  Church  truth  do  we  here  present. 
We  are  merely  spies  bringing  specimen  grapes  from 
a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey. 

"  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear." 

In  one  of  those  beautiful  symbolic  visions  by 
which  Swedenborg  was  taught  interior  truths,  he 
beheld  a  splendid  temple  constructed  of  precious 
stones  and  with  doors  of  solid  pearl.  Over  the 
front  was  an  inscription,  "  Nunc  licet" — "  It  is  now 
permitted." 

He  was  told  by  his  attendant  angel,  that  thereby 
was  signified  the  spiritual  light  and  liberty  of  the 
New  Church,  which  is  to  be  the  life  and  soul  of  a 
New  Era.  The  human  mind  is  henceforth  per- 
mitted to  criticise  every  theological  dogma,  and  to 


IS   THERE  NO  LIGHT?  39 

demand  a  reason  for  every  article  of  its  faith.  The 
reign  of  mystery  is  over.  The  spiritual  despotisms 
of  the  Past  are  abolished.  Science  and  Reason 
govern  henceforth  for  ever  under  authority  of  a  New 
Dispensation.  The  expanding  mind  of  the  race 
demands  an  explanation  of  the  Word  of  God,  an 
unfolding  of  the  life  to  come,  a  reconciliation  be- 
tween Nature  and  Revelation.  They  have  been 
granted.  The  Light  has  come.  The  glory  of  the 
Lord  has  shone  round  about  us,  and  a  little  band 
of  shepherds  have  seen  the  great  Light,  and  have 
heard  the  heavenly  host  singing, 

"Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth 
peace,  good-will  toward  men." 

The  source  of  this  Light  is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  I  am  come  a  Light  into  the  world,  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  on  me  shall  not  abide  in  darkness." 

"  And  the  city  had  no  need  of  the  sun,  neither 
of  the  moon  to  shine  in  it ;  for  the  glory  of  God 
did  lighten  it." 

It  shines  to  us  through  the  Holy  Word  as  a  me- 
dium : 

"  Open  thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  behold  won- 
drous things  out  of  thy  law." 

And  through  angelic  ministrations  : 

"  Hereafter  ye  shall  see  heaven  open." 


40  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

This  Light  shines  to  us  amidst  all  the  surround- 
ing darkness  of  false  creeds  and  of  skepticisms : 

"And  there  was  a  thick  darkness  in  all  the  land 
of  Egypt ;  but  all  the  children  of  Israel  had  light 
in  their  dwellings." 

This  Light  is  for  the  Lord's  Last  and  Everlasting 
Church : 

"  The  light  of  the  moon  shall  be  as  the  light  of 
the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  shall  be  seven- 
fold." 

"  Thy  sun  shall  no  more  go  down  :  neither  shall 
thy  moon  withdraw  itself:  for  the  Lord  shall  be 
thine  everlasting  Light." 

This  Light  is  Spiritual  Truth.  It  must  be  re- 
vealed to  man,  for  he  can  never  discover  it.  It  does 
not  come  from  without,  but  from  above  and  from 
within. 

The  Second  Coming  of  the  Lord  is  a  manifesta- 
tion of  Spiritual  Truth, — the  new  Light  for  a  New 
Era. 


CHAPTER    II. 

HOW   ARE   THEY   RAISED? 

T^HE  Angel  of  Death  comes  and  goes ;  interven- 
ing between  God  and  us.  His  coming  casts 
such  a  deep  shadow;  his  going  leaves  such  a  strange 
light !  The  world  is  never  the  same  to  us  before 
and  after  a  great  bereavement. 

After  the  first  wild  exclamations  of  grief,  how 
calm  every  one  becomes  !  The  vast  burdens  of 
anxious  hope  and  fear  and  sympathy  are  removed. 
The  nightmare  of  death  is  ended.  The  sufferings 
and  agonies  are  all  over.  "  After  life's  fitful  fever, 
she  sleeps  well."  We  experience  a  stupefaction  of 
mind  which  we  mistake  for  serenity,  whilst  a 
larger,  heavier  burden  is  preparing  for  our  hearts ; 
the  burden  we  only  lay  down  with  our  own  wearied 
bodies  at  the  grave — the  aching  sense  of  separation. 

Oh  the  unreality  of  what  seems  to  us  most  real ! 
the  truth,  the  substantialty  of  spiritual  things, 
which  seem  to  us  so  shadowy ! 

With  deep  sighs  the  watchers  now  leave  the  bcd- 

4  *  41 


42  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

side.  Their  task  is  done:  they  need  watch  no 
more.  The  little  figure  lying  there  will  never  raise 
its  head  for  a  sip  of  water,  nor  open  its  eyes  again 
to  see  if  the  dear  familiar  faces  are  around  it.  Take 
away  the  food  and  medicines ;  vain,  useless,  pow- 
erless things ! — so  lately  the  elixirs  of  hope  and 
life.  Prepare  the  drapery  of  the  tomb.  The  wo- 
men move  about  softly  with  whispered  words  or 
mere  gestures,  rendering  the  last  offices  of  human 
kindness  to  the  precious  little  body ;  embalming  it 
with  kisses,  bathing  it  with  tears. 

Now  it  is  ready,  and  all  is  quiet  again.  There 
it  lies,  cold  and  white,  the  deserted  palace  of  the 
Soul !  In  the  sweet,  calm  halo  that  surrounds  it, 
sit  the  pensive  watchers,  scarcely  ever  exchanging 
a  word.  The  night  wears  slowly  away.  The  clock 
strikes  the  small  hours  one  after  another,  breaking 
rudely  with  its  mechanical  voices  upon  the  ethereal 
silence  of  sorrow. 

At  last  the  sad  Dawn,  pinning  her  gray  mantle 
with  a  star,  looks  softly  in  at  the  shutters,  starts 
back  in  gentle  surprise,  and  lays  her  finger  on  her 
lips. 

****** 

Little  Lucy  was  laid  out  in  the  parlor  in  the 
morning.  -The  windows  were  thrown  open,  and 


110 W  ARE   THEY  RAISED?  43 

the  fresh  air  came  in  sweetly.  Near  her  head 
stood  a  little  table  with  the  Holy  Bible  and  a  vase 
of  fresh  flowers  upon  it ;  both  voices  from  heaven, 
speaking  with  unequal  eloquence  their  consolations 
to  the  heart. 

Sympathizing  friends  had  sent  in  many  offerings 
of  flowers.  What  a  precious  token  of  kindly  feel- 
ing is  conveyed  to  a  wounded  heart  by  a  mere  pre- 
sent of  flowers !  Richer  than  words,  almost  equal 
to  tears,  are  those  beautiful  hieroglyphics  of  the 
affections  !  The  whole  room  was  filled  with  their 
delicious  perfume.  They  seemed  striving  to  over- 
shadow the  cold  fact  of  death  by  a  spiritual  pre- 
sence, as  if  the  emotions  and  thoughts  of  the  de- 
parted child  had  passed  into  their  beautiful  and 
smiling  forms. 

The  little  body  was  almost  buried  in  flowers. 
A  splendid  wreath  of  them  crowned  that  golden 
head,  "sunning  over  with  curls."  A  rare  bouquet 
had  been  placed  in  her  tiny  hands.  She  loved 
flowers  instinctively,  as  angels  and  good  men  love 
poetry  and  music.  Had  she  seen  all  that  floral 
wealth  and  beauty  showered  on  some  little  dead 
girl  of  her  own  sweet  floral  age,  how  she  would 
have  wept ! 

Her  father,  heart-worn  with  many  watchings  and 


44  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

sorrows,  came  softly  in  and  knelt  by  her  side.  He 
kissed  her  cold  brow  and  her  white  cheek.  A 
strange  light  shone  from  the  little  pale  face ;  but, 
alas !  it  was  only  the  daylight  reflected  from  her 
beautiful,  ethereal  features.  The  soul's  light  had 
gone — was  shining  in  another  world,  leaving  dark- 
ness for  him  in  this.  He  wept  silently. 

He  sat  thinking  over  the  incidents  of  his  little 
girPs  short,  sweet,  beautiful  life.  The  kaleidoscope 
of  memory  turned  and  turned,  and  many  charming 
pictures  rose  up  before  him.  He  saw  her  baby  face, 
round  and  rosy,  nestling  sweetly  against  her  mother's 
breast.  Then  her  first  tottering  expeditions  from 
chair  to  chair,  watched  and  applauded  by  all  the 
family.  She  was  now  romping  over  the  floor  with 
shaggy  little  Fido ;  now  rocking  her  doll,  half  as 
big  as  herself,  with  sober  mother-face  and  earnest 
caressings.  Suddenly  she  kissed  her  hand  from 
the  carriage,  driving  by,  sweetly  dressed  and  curled 
for  the  afternoon  airing.  Now  he  watches  her 
serious  brow  poring  over  the  pictures  of  the  primer; 
then  he  hears  her  first,  wandering,  delicate  touches 
at  the  piano,  or  the  heavenly  sweetness  of  her  voice 
saying  the  Lord's  Prayer.  He  gazes  long  at  her 
fairy  figure  sporting  on  the  green  grass  under  the 
old  whispering  trees,  gleaming  to  and  fro  like  a 


HOW  ARE   THEY  RAISED?  45 

sunbeam  in  their  great  shadows.  These  and  many 
other  sacred  pictures  of  child-life  passed  slowly 
before  him,  touching  and  melting  his  innermost 
heart  like  the  softest  wails  of  cathedral  music, 
stirring  the  divine  despairs  of  the  soul ;  and  he 
wept  bitterly. 

He  then  went  step  by  step,  with  fearful,  torturing 
minuteness  of  detail,  over  all  the  incidents  of  her 
last  terrible  illness.  Has  grief  its  fascinations  also, 
that  we  cannot  help  touching  and  teasing  and  tear- 
ing open  the  wounds  of  our  own  bleeding  hearts  ? 
He  retraced  every  thing  that  occurred,  from  day  to 
day,  from  night  to  night ;  the  fever,  the  thirst,  the 
pain,  the  delirium;  the  whole  onward  and  down- 
ward course  of  the  hated  disease ;  the  mistakes,  the 
failures,  the  omissions;  the  fears,  the  hopes,  the 
supplications,  the  despairs;  the  last  sad  struggle 
and  the  frantic  farewells.  What  a  cup  of  agony  ! 
often  emptied,  always  refilled.  Will  the  joys  of 
heaven  through  golden  eternities  efface  these  awful 
memories  from  the  soul  ? 

Then  came  the  realization  of  the  fact  that  the 
object  of  all  this  idolatry  was  gone  for  ever  from 
the  natural  world.  Gone  for  ever;  invisible,  in- 
accessible, seeming  to  have  been  annihilated !  It 
is  fearful  to  lose  a  child  in  the  streets  of  a  great 


46  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

city,  where  pursuit  is  possible,  and  where  a  thou- 
sand eager  feet  join  you  in  the  search.  But  your 
child  steps  out  of  your  sight  into  the  wilderness  of 
the  spiritual  world,  and  none  can  pursue  it  but 
your  own  aching,  weary,  bleeding  heart — alone  and 
in  vain,  through  long,  bitter  years,  seemingly  un- 
aided by  God  or  angels  or  men. 

Is  my  child  really  still  alive  in  the  face  of  all 
this  apparent  death?  Has  she  the  same  spiritual 
vitality  she  had  a  few  days  ago  ?  or  is  she  asleep, 
every  faculty  being  dormant  until  a  resurrection  in 
some  far  future?  These  and  kindred  questions 
pressed  for  solution  on  his  heart. 

Suddenly  his  eye  fell  upon  the  family  Bible, 
which  little  Lucy  had  often  put  upon  his  knees, 
begging  him  to  read  of  little  Moses  floating  among 
the  rushes,  or  of  little  Samuel  startled  in  the  night 
by  the  voice  of  the  Lord.  She  loved  the  charming 
narratives  of  the  Scripture,  and  her  bright  blue 
eyes  would  often  turn  reverently  upwards  at  the 
mention  of  sacred  things. 

She  used  to  gaze  curiously  upon  the  entry  made 
in  that  Bible  of  her  birthday,  as  if  innocently 
wondering  how  such  a  trifle  as  her  birthday  could 
be  recorded  in  the  same  volume  with  so  many  holy 
and  beautiful  things.  Alas !  the  death-page,  then 


HOW  ARE   THEY  RAISED?  47 

so  white,  had  a  line  waiting  for  her  little  name 
also. 

The  Word  of  God  exists  in  heaven  as  well  as 
upon  earth — a  fact  quite  unknown  to  the  present 
Christian  church.  Here  it  is  veiled  in  simple  and 
sometimes  uncomely  forms :  but  there  it  is  the  very 
mind  and  thought  of  God,  the  source  of  all  truth. 

Of  that  Bible  in  heaven — the  soul,  to  which  our 
earthly  Bible  is  the  homely  body — Swedenborg 
beautifully  says : 

"  There  are  many  wonderful  phenomena  result- 
ing from  the  Word  in  the  spiritual  world.  The 
Word  itself,  kept  in  the  most  sacred  recesses  of  the 
temples  in  that  world,  shines  in  the  sight  of  the 
angels  like  a  great  star,  and  sometimes  like  a  sun. 
It  sometimes  also  seems  to  be  encompassed  by  beau- 
tiful rainbows.  This  phenomenon  is  exhibited  so 
soon  as  ever  the  sacred  repository  of  the  Word  is 
opened." 

No  outward  rainbows  encircled  that  old  family 
Bible  to  the  bereaved  father's  eye,  but  a  great  light 
came  from  it  upon  his  soul,  when  he  opened  its 
pages  on  that  eventful  morning. 

Kneeling  by  the  dead  body  of  his  beloved 
daughter,  he  took  the  sacred  Volume  in  his  hands, 
and  prayed  the  Lord,  with  a  deep,  agonizing,  living 


48  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

faith,  to  give  him  one  sentence,  one  word  of  com- 
fort, of  strength,  from  his  written  Word ;  some  light, 
some  knowledge  of  his  darling's  whereabouts  or 
welfare ;  some  strong  and  sure  breathing  of  peace 
upon  him  from  that  happy  sphere  where  all  is 
peace. 

He  opened  the  Book  at  random,  and  by  that  kind 
of  chance  which  is  providence,  he  put  his  finger  on 
the  forty-first  verse  of  the  fifth  chapter  of  Mark : 

"And  he  took  the  damsel  by  the  hand,  and  said 
unto  her,  Talitha  cumi ;  which  is,  being  interpreted, 
Damsel  (I  say  unto  thee),  arise  I" 

With  the  sacred  verse  there  came  shining  down 
into  his  heart  a  clear,  sweet  perception  of  the  fact 
that  at  that  very  moment  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who  alone  is  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life,  was 
raising  up  out  of  her  cold  and  lifeless  form  that 
beautiful,  spiritual  body  in  which  little  Lucy  will 
exist  as  an  angel  for  ever. 

He  plucked  some  white  and  green  leaves  from 
the  flowers  which  lay  in  the  dead  child's  hand,  and 
placed  them  on  that  verse  of  the  sacred  Volume. 
Years  have  passed  away,  and  they  are  there  still, 
pale  and  withered ;  sacred  little  mementoes  of  the 
consolation  which  came  like  a  voice  from  heaven  in 
his  hour  of  need.  When  he  is  haunted  by  sorrow- 


HOW  ARE   THEY  RAISED?  49 

ful  memories  and  falls  into  states  of  desolation  and 
despair,  he  opens  that  Holy  Book  and  kisses  those 
faded  leaves ;  and  his  spirit  is  sometimes  elevated 
into  that  mount  which  the  three  disciples  ascended 
spiritually  with  their  Lord,  and  there,  by  the  per- 
mission of  the  same  great  Redeemer,  who  makes 
every  child  of  his  an  image  of  himself,  he  sees  the 
body  of  his  little  daughter  transfigured  in  glory. 

If  the  material  body  rises  no  more,  once  inquired 
a  thoughtless  mother,  why  should  we  lavish  such 
attention  and  care  upon  the  sepulchre?  The  an- 
swer is  simple.  How  tenderly  we  treasure  the 
garments,  the  play-things,  the  books,  the  portraits 
of  our  lost  children  !  How  much  more  tenderly 
should  we  care  for  that  little  handful  of  sacred 
dust  in  which  their  dear  spirits  once  lived  and 
moved  and  communed  with  us ! 

In  a  sweet,  silent  spot  of  a  southern  graveyard, 
where  there  is  verdure  nearly  all  the  year  round, 
and  the  shadow  of  great  trees,  and  the  song  of  birds, 
three  little  mounds  are  seen.  They  are  colored  all 
over  with  petunias  and  hearths-ease. .  Their  marble 
head-pieces  shine  softly  in  the  gloom.  The  name 
of  Lucy,  sweet  as  a  little  flower,  is  engraved  on  one 
of  them.  On  her  baby-brother's  monument  appear 
the  true,  true  words : 

5  C  - 


50  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

"HE    IS    NOT   HERE:     HE   IS    RISEN." 

Yes !  our  graves  have  no  human  tenants.  No 
man,  woman,  or  child,  since  the  beginning  of  the 
world  was  ever  really  buried.  The  dust  and  ashes 
which  they  temporarily  inhabited  have  been  pro- 
perly consigned  to  the  tomb  ;  but  the  soul,  the  man, 
the  living  being,  has  past  out  of  it  for  ever. 

Away  with  the  degrading  falsehood  that  human 
beings  are  sleeping  in  the  grave!  The  phraseology 
is  revolting  and  hateful.  The  old  Greek  poet, 
without  the  light  of  revelation,  knew  better : 

"  Prot^,  thou  art  not  dead ;  but  hast  removed  to 
a  better  place,  and  dwellest  in  the  Islands  of  the 
Blest,  among  abundant  banquets,  where  thou  art 
delighted;  tripping  along  the  Elysian  plains  among 
soft  flowers,  free  from  every  ill." 

"  How  shall  we  bury  you  ?"  said  Crito  to  Soc- 
rates, before  he  drank  the  poison.  "  Just  as  you 
please,"  replied  the  Philosopher,  "  if  you  can  ever 
catch  me." 

Two  very  different  scenes  are  enacted  around 
every  dead  body  on*the  two  sides  of  the  great  cur- 
tain which  separates  the  natural  from  the  spiritual 
world. 

On  one  side  we  have  the  dark  trappings  of  woe; 
the  solemn  hearse,  the  funeral  crape,  the  sad  pro- 


HOW  ARE    THEY  RAISED?  51 

cession,  the  wails  of  grief,  the  priestly  promise  of 
some  far-off  resurrection,  the  dreadful  "earth  to 
earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust." 

Nothing  of  this  appears  on  the  other  side;  nothing 
of  this  is  possible.  Angels  and  good  spirits  occupy 
an  altogether  different  stand-point.  To  their  per- 
ceptions our  death  is  a  birth,  our  departure  an 
arrival,  our  burial  a  resurrection.  The  grave  for 
them  has  no  existence;  life  no  break  in  its  con- 
tinuous current.  They  look  on  us  merely  as  trav- 
elers coming  up  from  a  lower  sphere,  and  they 
welcome  us  gladly  to  their  glorious  habitations. 

Not  only  the  fact  that  we  have  a  spiritual  body 
conjoined  to  our  natural  body  during  life,  and  sepa- 
rated from  it  at  death,  has  been  revealed  to  man, 
but  also  the  very  process  by  which  the  separation 
or  resurrection  takes  place. 

Swedenborg  makes  the  following  wonderful  and 
solemn  affirmation : 

"  In  what  manner  resuscitation  is  effected  has 
not  only  been  related  to  me,  but  has  also  been 
shown  to  me  by  actual  experience.  I  was  myself 
made  the  subject  of  that  experience,  in  order  that 
I  might  fully  know  how  the  great  change  is  accom- 
plished. 

"  I  was  brought  into  a  state  of  insensibility  as 


52  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

to  the  bodily  senses,  and  thus  nearly  into  the  state 
of  dying  persons.  The  interior  life,  however,  re- 
mained entire,  together  with  the  faculty  of  thought, 
that  I  might  observe  and  retain  in  my  memory  the 
particulars  of  the  process  I  was  about  to  undergo, 
which  was  exactly  such  as  is  experienced  by  those 
who  are  being  resuscitated  from  the  dead." 

Death  is  no  longer  a  leap  in  the  dark  to  those 
who  accept  the  Lord's  new  revelations  of  the  life 
to  come.  We  need  not  gaze  on  the  dead  faces  of 
our  friends  in  blank  wonder  and  despair.  We  can 
follow  them  in  imagination  into  the  spiritual  world 
almost  as  surely  as  we  could  follow  them  into 
England  or  Italy.  By  the  genial  light  of  a  New 
Dispensation  let  us  strip  death  of  its  sting  and  the 
grave  of  its  victory.  Let  us  see  what  happened  to 
our  precious  little  ones  when  their  eyelids  dropped 
for  ever  upon  the  scenes  of  this  lower  world. 

When  the  heart  ceases  to  beat  and  the  lungs  to 
breathe,  it  is  a  sign  that  the  spiritual  body  can  no 
longer  abide  with  its  living  currents  of  affection 
and  thought  in  its  earthly  tenement.  It  can  no 
more  see  through  the  windows  of  the  material  eye, 
or  hear  the  music  of  this  world  through  that  cun- 
ning instrument,  the  natural  ear.  It  lies  in  a  deep, 
dreamless  sleep,  waiting  for  some  heavenly  touch 


HOW  ARE   THEY  RAISED?  53 

to  awaken  it  to  its  interior  and  real  life.  This  sleep 
is  of  short  duration. 

Now  a  beautiful  and  wonderful  thing  occurs. 
Two  or  more  glorious  angels  from  the  Lord's 
celestial  kingdom,  the  kingdom  in  which  Love  is 
the  breath  of  life,  descend  from  their  happy  homes 
on  the  sweetest  errand  of  mercy.  The  life  of  the 
angels  is  the  love  of  uses.  Selfishness  and  death 
are  with  them  synonymous.  Their  offices,  employ- 
ments, and  duties,  all  for  the  good  of  others,  are 
of  infinite  variety.  Many  of  them  are  engaged  in 
secret  and  constant  services  to  the  human  race. 
There  are  angels  of  birth  and  death ;  angels  who 
comfort  in  sickness  and  sorrow;  angels  who  in- 
struct and  enlighten ;  angels  who  defend  from  evil 
spirits  and  devils;  angels  who  lead  the  sweet 
thoughts  of  innocent  children ;  angels  who  inspire 
conjugial  love;  and  a  thousand  other  genera  and 
species  of  heavenly  ministers. 

Those  who  approach  are  angels  of  the  resur- 
rection. 

They  sit  near  the  head  and  feet  of  the  little 
spirit,  whose  spiritual  body,  no  longer  animating 
its  natural  form,  now  first  becomes  visible  in  the 
light  of  the  spiritual  world.  They  do  not  speak, 
but  gaze  into  its  face,  ready  to  communicate  their 

5  * 


54  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

own  peace  and  love,  by  processes  altogether  spirit- 
ual, to  the  resuscitating  soul  as  soon  as  it  becomes 
conscious.  They  do  not  see  the  natural  body,  the 
little  corpse,  any  more  than  we,  who  are  weeping 
over  the  latter,  can  see  the  purer  spiritual  body 
at  which  they  are  gazing.  Each  side,  so  real  in 
its  own  sphere,  is  invisible,  imperceptible  to  the 
other. 

A  delightful  odor  of  flowers  and  aromatic  spices 
surrounds  the  spiritual  body  on  the  approach  of 
those  radiant  inhabitants  of  heaven.  Their  holy 
sphere  keeps  at  a  distance  all  evil  spirits  who  might 
attempt  to  pry  into  or  to  interfere  with  the  wonder- 
ful process  about  to  be  effected.  These  angels  take 
possession  of  what  Swedenborg  calls  the  region  of 
the  heart.  Spiritually,  this  means  the  whole  emo- 
tional nature  of  the  man,  which  they  regulate  and 
control  for  the  time,  subduing  every  thing  to  a 
sacred  calm.  They  await  in  silence  and  joy  the 
great  event,  the  extraction  of  a  spiritual  body  from 
its  material  envelope,  its  prison  or  grave,  and  its 
birth  into  the  spiritual  world. 

The  resurrection  is  effected  by  the  Lord  alone. 
That  little  spiritual  body  lying  there  in  its  dream- 
less sleep,  could  never  move  or  see  or  hear  or  feel 
again,  unless  the  Lord  withdrew  it  from  its  en- 


HOW  AEE   THEY  RAISED?  55 

tanglement  in  the  meshes  of  its  physical  form. 
The  angels  might  call  and  pray  and  labor  in  vain. 
They  could  not  wake  it.  The  Lord  alone  is  the 
Resurrection  and  the  Life. 

The  resurrection  is  effected  by  a  powerful  attrac- 
tion. It  was  felt  by  Swedenborg  as  a  steady  and 
strong  drawing  or  pulling,  a  veritable  extraction, 
as  sensibly  as  if  he  were  drawing  his  arm  out  of  a 
sleeve.  The  withdrawal  of  the  winged  butterfly 
out  of  its  first  groveling  form,  which  it  never  more 
resumes,  was  regarded  by  ancient  wisdom  as  typical 
of  the  ascension  into  heaven  of  the  spiritual  body 
or  soul  after  renouncing  its  material  envelope. 

But  this  attraction  by  the  Lord  ? 

How  little  we  realize  in  our  poor,  dark,  sensual 
earth-state,  that  there  is  really  no  life  in  the  uni- 
verse but  the  Lord's !  Our  heat  is  only  the  Lord's 
love  let  down  from  heaven  into  our  vibrating  ethers. 
Our  light  is  nothing  but  the  Lord's  wisdom  or 
spiritual  light,  moving  about  amongst  our  organic 
atoms,  and  revealing  to  us  somewhat  of  the  mys- 
teries and  beauties  of  his  creation.  All  our  physical 
forces,  so  called,  are  simply  spiritual  forces,  playing 
and  flowing  and  working  through  natural  media. 
Repulsion  and  attraction,  those  secret  mother-springs 
of  all  physical,  chemical,  and  physiological  phc- 


56  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

nomena,  come  first  of  all  from  the  Lord,  and  ara 
modes  or  laws  of  His  own  divine  life. 

His  outbreaking,  or  desire  to  create  all  things 
by  emanations  from  Himself  (repulsion),  is  the  cen- 
trifugal force  of  the  spiritual  spheres.  His  indraw- 
ing,  or  desire  to  unite  and  assimilate  all  things 
created  to  Himself  (attraction),  is  the  centripetal 
force  of  the  same  realms.  When  the  bonds,  weights, 
or  clogs  which  confined  the  soul  to  the  material 
sphere  are  broken  or  dissolved  at  death,  it  ascends 
upwards  and  inwards  in  obedience  to  spiritual  at- 
traction. If  our  earth  should  suddenly  fall  into 
nothingness  under  our  feet,  our  bodies  would  be 
drawn  into  the  sun,  unless  attracted  and  caught  in 
the  sphere  of  some  nearer  planet.  So  our  spiritual 
forms,  ceasing  to  animate  their  natural  bodies,  are 
drawn  out  of  them  by  divine  attraction,  and  are 
caught  in  the  magnetic  love-sphere  of  sympathetic 
spiritual  societies. 

Behold  the  secret  of  the  resurrection !  which  ne- 
cessarily takes  place  immediately  after  the  death  of 
the  material  body. 

The  expectant  angels  perceive  by  the  movements 
of  the  face  that  the  spirit  is  beginning  to  emerge 
into  consciousness  again.  With  eager  pleasure  they 
impart  to  it  their  own  sphere  of  unutterable  serenity 


HOW  ARE   THEY  RAISED?  57 

and  peace;  for  in  the  other  life  affections  and 
thoughts  radiate  and  are  reflected  or  absorbed  just 
as  the  rays  of  light  are  in  this.  The  painful  or 
stormy  elements  of  human  passion  are  all  quiescent, 
and  every  soul  awakes  into  the  inner  life,  as  if 
breathing  an  enchanted  atmosphere  and  listening 
to  heavenly  music.  These  celestial  angels  detain 
the  mind  of  the  new  comer  as  long  as  possible  in 
this  holy  and  happy  frame ;  and  if  he  sinks  into  a 
sphere  of  baser  feeling  and  lower  thought,  it  is  by 
his  own  volition. 

None  but  celestial  angels,  those  who  are  highest 
and  purest  and  nearest  to  the  Lord,  could  so  officiate 
in  this  solemn  and  beautiful  event,  as  to  ward  off 
every  evil  influence  and  to  surround  the  helpless, 
newly-revived  spirit  with  a  protective  atmosphere 
of  peace  and  love. 

These  tender  cares  are  shown  to  every  human 
being  who  departs  from  this  world,  no  matter  where, 
or  when,  or  how  the  great  exit  is  made.  Whether 
they  were  good  or  evil,  great  or  humble,  bond  or 
free;  whether  they  died  by  battle  or  murder  or 
shipwreck,  at  home  or  abroad,  happily  or  misera- 
bly ;  whether  they  passed  away  with  prayers  or 
curses  on  their  lips,  with  love  or  hatred  in  their 

hearts ;  they  all  sink  into  the  same  deep,  sweet 
C* 


58  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

sleep,  and  are  guarded  and  welcomed  by  celestial 
angels.  From  that  point  they  all  diverge,  and  each 
seeks  the  good  or  evil  societies  congenial  to  his  in- 
terior nature ;  but  all  are  born  or  ushered  into  the 
world  of  spirits  in  the  same  manner  and  under  the 
same  sweet  influences. 

Our  Lord  himself,  who  subjected  His  divine  na- 
ture to  the  limitations  of  time  and  space,  who  suf- 
fered in  a  human  form,  and  was  tempted  in  all 
things  as  we  are,  who  died  and  was  buried,  received 
in  His  own  resurrection  the  same  kind  services 
from  the  celestial  angels,  according  to  the  universal 
law.  For  Mary,  stooping  down  to  look  into  the 
sepulchre,  saw  "two  angels  in  white  sitting,  one  at 
the  head  and  the  other  at  the  feet,  where  the  body 
of  Jesus  had  lain." 

The  task  of  the  celestial  angels  is  now  done. 
These  glorious  beings  are  too  pure  and  holy  for  the 
new-comer  from  our  sinful  world  to  have  any  inti- 
mate communion  with  them  at  first.  As  the  in- 
terior nature  of  the  novitiate  spirit  unfolds  itself, 
the  dissimilar  spheres  repel,  and  the  celestial  angels 
seem  to  retire  to  their  own  abodes,  to  start  ajmin  on 

/  o 

their  labor  of  love.  The  risen  spirit  passes  under 
the  tutelage  of  the  spiritual  angels,  who  now  ap- 


HOW  ARE   THEY  RAISED?  59 

pear  and  take  charge  of  him  with  every  demon- 
stration of  affectionate  interest. 

Hitherto  after  waking,  the  resuscitated  soul  had 
only  been  able  to  feel  and  think,  but  not  to  see.  Why 
this  brief  blindness  ?  Because  as  a  general  rule 
(to  which,  indeed,  there  are  exceptions),  we  can  see 
only  those  in  the  spiritual  world  whose  state  of  life 
is  near  akin  to  our  own.  Only  the  pure  in  heart 
can  see  God.  The  sphere  of  the  celestial  angels  is 
darkness  to  those  who  are  not  celestial.  We  may 
safely  infer  that  infants  and  small  children,  in  whose 
minds  no  external  or  scientific  sphere  of  thought 
has  yet  been  formed,  and  in  whom  the  celestial  de- 
gree or  plane  of  life  is  still  open,  do  not  experience 
this  transitory  deprivation  of  sight. 

The  spiritual  angels  live  in  palaces  of  precious 
stones  resplendent  with  all  beautiful  colors.  They 
flow  into  and  govern  the  thoughts,  as  the  celestial 
angels  do  the  affections.  They  operate  on  the  un- 
derstanding as  the  celestials  do  on  the  will.  They 
are  literally  angels  of  light.  It  is  their  business 
and  their  delight  to  instruct.  The  love  of  truth  is 
the  supreme  passion  of  their  souls. 

They  restore  the  just-liberated  spiritual  body  to 
sight.  They  seem  to  roll  off  a  kind  of  membrane 
from  the  eye,  and  to  draw  something  very  gently 


60  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

off  from  the  face.  This,  however,  is  merely  an  ap- 
pearance, whereby  is  represented  the  change  from 
natural  to  spiritual  thought.  Spiritual  light,  which 
is  seven-fold  brighter  than  the  light  of  our  noon- 
day sun,  now  bursts  upon  the  vision  of  the  de- 
lighted spirit.  What  a  world  of  beauty  and  won- 
der !  With  what  amazement  is  he  filled  !  What 
an  escape  from  the  dark  caverns  and  pitfalls  and 
shadows  of  our  lower  realm,  into 

"  An  ampler  ether,  a  diviner  air, 
And  fields  invested  with  purpureal  gleams !" 

The  angels  now  tell  the  spirit  that  he  is  an  in- 
habitant of  the  spiritual  world,  and  answer  his 
thousand  eager  inquiries  about  every  thing  around 
him.  They  summon  his  friends  and  relatives  who 
have  preceded  him  across  the  river  of  death,  and 
there  are  such  greetings  as  are  never  witnessed  in 
this  world,  and  can  never  be  described  in  human 
language.  He  is  overwhelmed  with  kindnesses,  hos- 
pitalities, and  civilities,  until  he  passes  gradually, 
and  almost  unconsciously  to  himself,  into  that  ter- 
rible process  of  judgment  which  strips  him  of  all 
false  appearances  and  deceptive  values,  exposes  his 
naked  heart  to  his  own  view  and  that  of  others, 
and  assigns  him  to  the  place  he  had  prepared  for 
himself  by  his  life  and  conduct  in  the  world. 


HOW  ARE   THEY  RAISED?  61 

Whatever  may  be  the  final  issue,  we  may  rest 
assured  that  the  first  state  of  all  men  after  deatli  is 
a  state  of  wonder  and  delight.  At  the  time  when 
we  are  saddest,  our  deceased  friends  are  most  joyful. 
When  we  see  only  death,  they  see  nothing  but  life. 
When  we  are  recounting  our  loss,  they  are  re- 
volving their  gain.  When  our  darkness  is  deepest, 
their  light  is  brightest.  When  our  despair  is  wild- 
est, their  hope  is  unbounded. 

Spirits  from  Christian  countries  are  especially  be- 
wildered at  finding  themselves  in  possession  of 
what  seems  to  them  the  same  body  they  had  in  the 
world.  They  feel,  hear,  see,  just  as  they  did  before. 
They  have  the  same  shape,  size,  color,  hair,  hands, 
feet ;  indeed,  all  the  organs  of  the  human  body.  Every 
thing  about  them  seems  as  solid  and  real  as  it  ever 
was  here.  It  is  hard  to  convince  them  that  they 
are  dead  and  in  another  world,  because  the  change 
is  so  totally  unlike  what  they  expected.  The  most 
learned  prelates  and  philosophers  are  more  amazed 
than  the  unthinking  multitude  unaccustomed  to 
metaphysical  subtleties. 

Why  is  this? 

Because  in  the  Christian  churches  at  the  present 
day  there  is  no  knowledge  of  the  real  nature  of 
spirit  and  the  spiritual  world.  They  expect  no  re- 


62  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

vclation  on  the  subject,  and  indeed  for  the  most 
part  desire  none.  They  are  content  to  take  the 
Bible  as  their  moral  guide,  to  interpret  it  literally 
as  best  they  can,  and  to  defer  all  acquaintance  with 
the  other  life  until  they  actually  enter  upon  that 
life.  They  have  no  conception  of  the  spirit  or  soul 
as  an  organized  human  form  composed  of  spiritual 
substance;  nor  of  heaven  as  a  real,  substantial 
spiritual  world.  By  abstracting  goodness,  wisdom, 
and  virtue  from  their  forms  or  subjects,  they  imag- 
ine that  spirits  can  love  and  know,  feel  and  think, 
without  any  genuine  embodiment  whatever. 

They  are  of  course  astonished  at  death  to  find 
that  man  has  a  spiritual  body  organized  for  eternal 
life  in  a  spiritual  world,  to  which  a  natural  body 
was  attached  during  the  first  or  material  stage  of  his 
existence.  With  a  spiritual  body  dwelling  in  a  suit- 
able and  eternal  spiritual  world,  there  is  of  course  no 
use  of  the  cast-off  natural  body  any  more ;  no  general 
resurrection  from  the  material  grave ;  no  destruction 
of  the  physical  universe ;  no  second  coming  of  the 
Lord  into  nature,  as  misinterpretations  of  the 
letter  of  the  Word  have  taught  the  Christian  church 
to  expect. 

Is  not  the  world  spiritually  starving  for  a  new, 
rational,  thorough,  and  practical  revelation  of  the 


HOW  ARE   THEY  RAISED?  63 

life  to  come,  when  we  find  such  an  inscription  as 
this  on  a  tombstone  in  a  Christian  city,  quoted  from 
the  hymns  of  a  Christian  poet  ? — 

"  There  are  no  acts  of  pardon  passed 
In  the  cold  grave  to  which  we  haste ; 
But  darkness,  death,  and  long  despair 
Dwell  in  eternal  silence  there." 

How  sweetly,  swiftly  does  the  pure  heart  of 
childhood  get  at  the  clear  truth,  when  it  realizes  no 
essential  difference  between  the  forms,  feelings,  and 
life  of  the  other  world  and  of  this ! 

"  Good-bye,  dear  papa  I"  said  a  lovely  little  boy, 
as  his  dying  eyes  turned  from  a  golden  sunset. 
"Good-bye,  dear  papa!  I  am  going  to  mother. 
We  will  all  meet  in  the  morning." 

Yes,  dear  friends  !  it  is  true.  We  will  all  meet 
in  the  Morning. 


CHAPTER    III. 

WHAT   BODIES   HAVE   THEY? 

0  BEREAVED  mother !  thinking  of  the  beau- 
tiful little  form  you  have  just  laid  in  the 
grave,  and  weeping  over  the  little  garments  it  wore, 
as  one  by  one  you  fold  them  away — things  hence- 
forth of  memory  and  not  of  use — suppose  your 
natural  senses  could  be  laid  asleep,  as  in  the  mag- 
netic trance,  and  your  spiritual  eyes  opened  into 
heaven,  into  the  very  mansion  and  chamber  where 
your  child  is,  what  would  you  expect  to  see? 

Some  shadowy,  vapory  space,  filled  with  aerial 
music  and  songs  of  praise?  peopled  by  vague  ab- 
stractions of  goodness  and  virtue,  possibly  the  souls 
of  men  ?  and  your  little  one,  a  disembodied  spirit, 
almost  or  quite  intangible,  floating  or  flying  hither 
and  thither,  waiting  for  its  reunion  with  a  fleshly 
body  ? 

The  Old  Dispensations  can  give  us  little  better 
light  than  this;  broken  moonlight  flickering  on 
the  water.  Turn  away  from  these  glimmerings,  and 

64 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE   THEY?  65 

behold  the  real  state  of  things  in  the  sweet  sun- 
shine of  spiritual  truth. 

You  would  see  a  chamber  furnished  with  articles 
of  indescribable  beauty,  in  comparison  with  which 
the  wonders  of  imperial  palaces  are  trifles.  You 
would  see  an  angel-woman,  in  whose  radiant  and 
heavenly  presence  you  could  scarcely  lift  up  your 
eyes,  and  the  tones  of  whose  voice  would  melt  you 
into  tears.  In  her  arms  you  would  see  the  very 
child  you  thought  you  had  buried  in  the  dust. 
Nothing  would  be  lost,  nothing  absent.  Every 
golden  curl  would  be  found  in  its  place;  every  dimple 
on  its  exquisitely-moulded  limbs;  the  old  smiles  on 
its  ethereal  lips ;  the  same  joyous  spring  in  its  mo- 
tions; the  same  dreamy  heaven  of  love  and  peace 
in  its  eyes. 

You  would  at  first  suppose  it  was  a  beautiful 
dream  or  a  vision.  When  you  became  convinced 
that  the  scene  was  real,  and  not  imaginary,  you 
would  not  understand  how  your  child  could  be 
living  and  dead  at  the  same  time.  You  would  not 
remember  its  duplicate  body,  the  natural  form  laid 
in  the  grave  and  resolving  into  dust.  You  would 
think  your  child  had  been  miraculously  spirited 
away  into  that  wonderful  place.  You  would  be 
frantic  for  its  possession.  AVhen  your  spiritual  eyes 

6* 


66  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

were  closed  again,  the  old  gulf  would  yawn  between 
you ;  and  all  would  be  dark  for  a  moment.  Then 
you  would  find  yourself  in  your  own  chamber, 
weeping  over  the  fragments  of  your  broken  hope ; 
and  you  would  call  your  spiritual  experience  a 
dream ! 

"If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  Prophets, 
neither  will  they  be  persuaded  though  one  rose  from 
the  dead." 

We  can  never  follow  our  little  ones  satisfactorily 
into  the  other  life,  until  we  grasp  the  beautiful  idea, 
that  the  spiritual  body  is  a  human  form  organized 
of  spiritual  substance,  and  inhabiting  a  spiritual 
universe,  which  may  interpenetrate  the  physical 
universe  without  having  any  connection  with  it 
perceptible  to  our  natural  senses. 

Before  considering  the  wonderful  and  beautiful 
changes  which  the  spiritual  body  undergoes  after 
death,  we  must  fix  clearly  in  our  minds  the  fact 
that  the  soul  of  man  has  two  garments,  an  inner 
and  an  outer  one.  The  latter,  or  the  natural  body, 
may  be  parted  and  destroyed.  The  former,  or 
spiritual  body,  in  which  all  life,  thought,  feeling 
really  abide,  like  the  inner  raiment  of  our  Lord,  is 
without  seam  and  indestructible.  The  co-exist- 
ence of  these  two  bodies  during  our  earth-life  and 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE   THEY?  67 

their  separation  at  death,  is  the  central  truth  about 
which  as  a  golden  pivot  a  rational  Psychology  must 
revolve. 

"  There  is  a  natural  body  and  there  is  a  spiritual 
body,"  is  the  true  formula  of  Christian  faith ;  and 
not  its  strange  perversion, — "there  is  a  natural 
body  which  shall  be  miraculously  changed  into  a 
spiritual  one."  "Thou  sowest  not  that  body  that 
shall  be/'  says  Paul.  The  exterior  body  perishes, 
falling  off  like  a  glove  from  the  hand,  whilst  the 
interior  rises  and  lives  for  ever. 

The  co-existence  of  these  bodies  is  the  key  to  the 
relation  between  mind  and  matter ;  the  spiritual 
and  natural  worlds.  It  throws  a  flood  of  light 
upon  many  passages  of  Scripture  hitherto  involved 
in  mystery.  It  explains  the  true  ground  of  the 
credibility  of  the  Prophets  and  Seers — including 
Swedeuborg — who  profess  to  have  received  in- 
struction from  the  spiritual  side  of  the  universe, 
by  hearing  or  open  vision.  "  In  my  spirit  in  the 
midst  of  my  body/7  is  the  singular  form  of  ex- 
pression by  which  Daniel  refers  to  his  troubled 
visions. 

To  be  living  in  the  natural  world,  and  to  have 
the  spiritual  eyes  and  ears  so  opened  into  heaven 
as  to  see  and  converse  with  angels  face  to  face ! 


68  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

How  the  gross  and  sensual  spirit  of  this  age  shrinks 
with  incredulity  from  the  recognition  of  such  a 
claim !  The  idea  of  a  man's  reporting  the  state 
of  things  in  heaven,  say  they,  as  a  traveler  would 
report  the  condition  of  India !  Why  not  ?  As  if 
heaven  were  not  nearer  than  India !  As  if  heaven 
were  not  within  us,  and  the  road  to  it  through  our 
own  souls !  As  if  the  good  and  beautiful  things  of 
earth  would  continue  for  a  moment  unless  the 
breath  of  heaven  kept  them  persistent  in  form  and 
shining  in  use !  As  if  our  own  affections  and  thoughts 
were  not  already,  according  to  their  character,  in 
heaven  or  hell,  and  we  ourselves  unconsciously 
members  of  some  spiritual  society  in  one  world 
or  the  other!  As  if— oh,  shameful  naturalism! — 
heaven  were  some  distant  locality  only  to  be  reached 
by  actual  transference  through  natural  space ! 

Our  own  spiritual  bodies  are  the  hidden  gates 
which  lead  into  and  out  of  the  spiritual  kingdom. 
We  have  eyes  within  our  eyes  which  can  see  the 
glorious  landscapes  of  Heaven.  We  have  ears 
within  our  ears  which  can  hear  the  ineffable  halle- 
lujahs of  the  Redeemed.  We  are  so  constituted 
also,  that  the  angels  of  those  inner  realms  may, 
under  circumstances  of  rare  occurrence,  look  through 
our  eyes  as  through  windows,  and  see  the  poor 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE   THEY?  69 

baubles  of  our  earthly  architecture,  and  hear  through 
our  ears  the  miserable  wails  of  human  suffering. 

The  existence  of  this  wonderful  duality  of  uni- 
verses ;  of  an  invisible  and  a  visible  world  blended 
together  by  corresponding  forms;  of  a  spiritual 
body  and  a  natural  body  co-existing,  is  recognized 
by  the  poet  in  his  most  exalted  states,  and  runs  in 
slender  threads  of  beauty  and  truth  here  and  there 
through  the  songs  of  all  nations. 

Shelley  gives  this  idea  in  one  of  its  phases  very 
charming  expression,  when  the  Spirit  of  the  Earth 
says  to  Prometheus : 

" Ere  Babylon  was  dust, 


The  Magus  Zoroaster,  my  dead  child, 
Met  his  own  image  walking  in  the  garden. 
That  apparition,  sole  of  men,  he  saw ; 
For  know,  there  are  two  worlds  of  life  and  death : 
One,  that  which  thou  beholdest ;  the  other 
Is  far  beyond  the  grave,  where  do  inhabit 
The  shadows  of  all  forms  that  think  and  live. 
*  *  *  -x-  *  *  * 

Terrible,  strange,  sublime,  and  beauteous  shapes ! 
There  thou  art,  and  dost  hang,  a  writhing  shade, 
'Mid  whirlwind-peopled  mountains :  all  the  gods 
Are  there ;  and  all  the  powers  of  nameless  worlds, 
Vast  sceptred  phantoms :  heroes,  men  and  beasts." 

Descending  from  the  region  of  fancy  to  that  of 


70  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

fact,  between  which  the  truth  lies,  always  touching 
on  both,  we  can  verify  the  existence  of  another 
body  within  our  physical  bodies  by  asking  any 
mutilated  soldier,  whether  he  does  not  feel  the 
wholeness,  the  unity  of  his  body  and  limbs  as  be- 
fore. He  will  tell  us  that  he  feels  his  limb  exactly 
as  if  it  were  not  amputated.  Our  scientific  men 
try  to  explain  this  by  saying  it  is  a  physiological 
law,  that  sensations  really  occurring  in  the  nervous 
centres  are  referred  to  the  peripheries  or  circum- 
ference. But  here  the  periphery  or  circumference 
has  no  physical  existence,  because  it  has  been  am- 
putated. It  is  to  the  real  but  invisible  circumfer- 
ence, the  arm  or  leg  of  the  spiritual  body,  that  the 
sensation  is  referred. 

A  higher  Physiology,  which  is  among  the  better 
things  coming,  will  discover  that  all  life,  sensation, 
thought,  and  volition  occur  in  the  spiritual  body, 
and  are  manifested  outwardly  through  the  natural 
body  as  a  medium  or  machine,  which  has  no  life  in 
itself,  but  derives  its  life,  moment  by  moment,  from 
the  spiritual  form  within  it. 

These  spiritual  bodies  of  ours,  living  in  our 
material  forms,  are  seldom  visible  to  the  spirits 
who  are  in  nearest  attendance  upon  us,  because  we 
think  and  feel  so  differently  from  them,  so  entirely 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE   THEY?  71 

in  time  and  space;  we  are  so  drawn,  so  abstracted 
from  spiritual  things  by  the  love,  care,  and  neces- 
sity of  earthly  things,  that  they  cannot  see  us. 
Similarity  of  thought  and  affection  makes  proximity 
and  presence  in  the  other  life.  Still  we  do  some- 
times become  obscurely  visible  to  our  spirit  friends 
in  certain  states  of  great  mental  quiescence  or  ab- 
straction. They  also  have  their  ghosts  or  appa- 
ritions. Some  friend  in  heaven  suddenly  sees  his 
friend  living  on  earth  standing  or  walking  apart, 
silent  and  not  looking  toward  him.  He  gazes  a 
while,  as  we  would  at  a  spirit,  half  in  fear,  half  in 
wonder.  He  calls  out  to  him,  and  the  figure  van- 
ishes. The  earthly  friend  starts  at  the  same  moment 
from  his  reverie,  and  wonders  whether  or  not  he 
heard  the  voice  of  some  one  calling  him. 

The  opening  of  the  spiritual  senses,  the  sight, 
hearing,  touch,  &c.,  of  the  spiritual  body,  may  be 
partial  or  complete.  The  ear  alone  may  be  opened, 
and  nothing  seen.  The  little  child  Samuel  hears 
the  Lord  calling  him,  and  receives  a  message  for 
Eli ;  but  sees  nothing.  Sometimes  the  eye  alone 
is  opened,  but  nothing  heard.  The  men  who  were 
with  Paul  when  he  was  struck  to  the  earth  saw  the 
great  light,  but  did  not  hear  the  voice  of  Jesus 
speaking  to  his  persecutor. 


72  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

Sometimes  the  eye  is  only  opened  so  far  as  to  see 
a  light,  but  not  the  person  or  figure  of  the  spiritual 
speaker.  Moses  saw  a  fire  in  the  bush  and  heard 
the  angelic  voice,  but  did  not  see  the  angel.  Some- 
times there  is  no  light,  but  the  figure  or  person  of 
a  spirit  or  angel  appears.  In  this  case  the  spirit 
seems  to  be  in  the  natural  world  with  us ;  but  he 
is  not,  and  cannot  see  or  feel  any  thing  of  our  sur- 
roundings except  through  our  own  minds. 

A  still  further  degree  of  insight  (sight  from 
within)  is  when  the  appearing  spirit  or  angel  can 
exhibit  various  spiritual  objects  to  the  eye  for  pur- 
poses of  instruction.  Ezekiel  and  other  Prophets, 
and  St.  John  in  the  Isle  of  Patmos,  enjoyed  this 
intercourse  to  a  wonderful  degree.  But  the  highest 
state  of  spiritual  communication  is  when  all  the 
senses  of  the  spiritual  body  are  opened  at  once  into 
the  spiritual  sphere,  and  not  only  spirits  or  angels 
are  seen,  but  also  the  scenery,  houses,  cities,  &c., 
of  the  heavenly  world.  This  was  the  case  with 
Swedenborg  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

Many  curious  mental  phenomena  which  are  mys- 
teries to  the  present  incapable  psychology,  and  are 
therefore  shelved  as  traditions,  superstitions,  or  im- 
postures, may  be  explained  as  partial  openings  of 
our  interior  senses.  Many  wonderful  things  told 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE  THEY?  73 

of  apparitions,  trances,  dreams,  witchcraft,  magic, 
mesmerism,  somnambulism,  &c.,  find  here  their 
solution.  It  frequently  happens  also  that  the  dying 
have  partial  intromission  into  the  spiritual  spheres, 
and  see  their  departed  friends  and  hear  the  music 
of  heaven  ;  not  with  their  natural  eyes  and  ears,  as 
the  wondering  bystanders  ignorantly  suppose,  but 
with  the  opening  senses  of  the  spiritual  body. 

This  grand  revelation  through  Swedenborg  of 
the  nature  and  functions  of  the  spiritual  body,  is  a 
key  to  some .  of  the  strangest  and  most  difficult 
portions  of  the  Bible.  Many  things  which  appear 
miraculous,  or  as  violating  the  fixed  laws  of  nature, 
can  be  shown  to  be  manifestations  of  spiritual 
truths,  occurring  actually  and  solely  in  the  spiritual 
sphere,  but  ignorantly  referred  to  our  external  and 
natural  plane  of  life  and  thought. 

To  illustrate:  Moses,  a  meek  and  sorrowful  exile, 
is  quietly  feeding  his  flock  in  a  solitary  place  upon 
Mount  Horeb,  "the  mountain  of  God;"  brooding, 
perchance,  over  the  cruel  bondage  of  his  brethren 
in  Egypt.  Suddenly  a  wonderful  thing  appears  to 
him,  a  bright  flame  of  fire  bursting  out  of  the  midst 
of  a  bush.  Wholly  unconscious  that  the  real  cause 
of  this  phenomenon  is  a  change  occurring  in  his 
own  spirit,  he  is  filled  with  amazement.  The  fire 


74  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

continues  to  burn  brightly,  but  "  the  bush  is  not 
consumed,"  for  the  simple  reason  that  there  is  no 
natural  fire  in  it.  Moses,  however,  thinks  it  is  a 
natural  fire;  and  he  approaches,  as  he  says,  "to  see 
this  great  sight,  why  the  bush  is  not  burned." 
Suddenly  a  voice  calls  to  him  out  of  the  bush,  and 
after  commanding  him  to  take  off  his  shoes  from 
his  feet,  proceeds  to  charge  him  with  a  great  and 
solemn  mission. 

Moses  describes  the  scene  precisely  as  it  appeared 
to  his  own  senses.  The  real  state  of  the  case  was 
this:  The  Lord  sent  an  angel  filled  with  his  Spirit, 

w 

so  as  to  speak  in  his  name.  He  approaches  Moses 
from  his  spiritual  side, — for  no  angel  or  spirit  can 
resume  any  physical  embodiment,  or  be  seen  by  the 
natural  eye  of  man.  The  spiritual  sight  of  Moses 
is  first  partially  opened,  and  he  sees  the  burning 
bush.  The  divine  light  flowing  down  into  the  ex- 
ternal or  scientific  sphere  of  his  own  mind,  is  rep- 
resented symbolically  to  him  as  a  fire  burning  in  a 
bush  which  is  not  consumed.  When  his  spiritual 
hearing  is  opened,  he  holds  the  conversation  with 
the  angel  of  the  Lord,  detailed  in  Exodus.  If 
some  wanderer  in  the  desert  had  approached  the 
spot,  he  would  have  seen  no  fire  and  have  heard 
no  voice.  If  his  sight  alone  had  been  opened,  like 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE   THEY?  75 

the  attendants  of  Paul,  he  would  have  seen  the  light, 
but  would  not  have  heard  the  words. 

After  our  Lord's  resurrection,  it  is  stated  that 
sundry  persons  came  out  of  their  graves  and  ap- 
peared to  many.  Was  this  a  genuine  flesh-and- 
blood  resurrection  before  the  appointed  time?  Did 
these  people  go  back  into  their  graves,  and  resume 
the  long  sleep  to  which  the  Old  Theology  consigns 
them  ?  The  explanation  is  this :  After  the  cruci- 
fixion, the  spiritual  sight  of  a  great  many  of  the 
disciples  was  partially  opened.  They  saw  the  angels 
about  the  sepulchre,  and  indeed  the  Lord  himself, 
with  their  spiritual  eyes.  They  saw  his  ascension 
to  heaven  in  the  same  manner ;  for  He  certainly 
never  rose  into  the  physical  atmosphere!  They 
saw  certain  old  saints  with  the  same* eyes;  and 
knowing  they  had  been  dead  and  buried  (as  the 
natural  man  will  have  it)  for  a  long  time,  they 
inferred  that  they  must  have  risen  from  their 
graves.  Having  no  correct  idea  of  the  spiritual 
body  or  the  spiritual  world,  and  being  wholly  un- 
conscious of  the  changes  occurring  in  their  own 
spirits,  they  regarded  as  miracles  certain  events, 
which  were  simply  the  operation  of  spiritual  laws 
with  which  they  were  unacquainted. 

In  our  blind  faith  and  reverence  for  Moses  and 


76  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

Ezekiel,  John  and  Paul,  we  suppose  they  under- 
stood the  whole  deep  philosophy  and  wonderful 
mechanism  of  the  Revelation  they  were  instru- 
mental in  making.  This  is  a  great  error.  The 
Prophets  and  Apostles  were  generally  simple- 
minded,  uncultivated  men,  who  interpreted  in  a 
sensuous  manner,  according  to  the  strict  literal 
appearance,  things  which  were  beyond  their  in- 
terior comprehension.  It  was  their  mission  to  give 
the  Word  of  God  its  external  or  sensuous  basis ; 
and  there  is  no  special  reason  why,  or  probability 
that  they  understood  it  themselves  in  any  other 
manner. 

We  must  get  rid  of  prophet-worship  and  apostle- 
worship,  as  well  as  of  hero-worship  and  saint-wor- 
ship. Those  worthies  were  the  passive  mediums, 
not  the  authors  of  Revelation.  Our  faith,  our 
reverence,  our  love,  must  be  felt  not  for  their  per- 
sons or  characters  any  further  than  they  naturally 
deserve,  but  for  the  spiritual  truths  they  have  com- 
municated,— frequently  not  knowing  their  real 
value, — and  for  the  Lord,  from  whom  those  truths 
descended,  flowing  from  sphere  to  sphere,  from 
heaven  to  heaven,  from  angels  and  spirits  to  man 
on  earth  in  his  lowest  and  simplest  degree  of  life. 

The  doctrine  of  the  spiritual  body  must  be  mado 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE   THEY?  77 

clear  to  our  minds,  before  the  glorious  light  of 
Swedenborg's  revelations  can  fall  upon  the  vital 
questions  of  life  which  so  vex  our  inmost  hearts. 
His  own  mission  and  seership  become  possible  and 
credible  to  us  only  when  we  understand  the  me- 
chanism as  it  were  of  his  spiritual  insight.  The 
credibility  of  his  teachings  must  rest  on  their  in- 
herent truth ;  but  a  prior  difficulty  in  every  mind, 
is  the  question  of  the  possibility  of  his  super- 
natural communications.  We  have  so  long  regarded 
the  other  life  as  "  the  bourne  whence  no  traveler 
returns,"  and  its  phenomena  as  the  incommunicable 
secrets  of  the  grave,  that  we  are  accustomed  to  view 
with  distrust  any  claim  to  spiritual  experience. 

We  see  the  biblical  narratives  of  open  vision 
through  the  enchanting  distances  of  time  and  space, 
and  whatever  interpretation  wre  give  them,  we  are 
unwilling  to  admit  that  any  thing  similar  can  hap- 
pen in  our  own  age  and  country.  This  is  unphilo- 
sophical  and  unreasonable.  The  same  organic  men- 
tal constitution — the  spiritual  body  connecting  the 
soul  with  both  heaven  and  hell — exists  in  all  men ; 
in  Abraham,  in  Moses,  in  Paul,  in  Swedenborg,  in 
ourselves.  Every  human  being  has  a  potentiality 
of  seeing  into  heaven  and  hell  without  any  change 
of  place ;  without  any  violation  of  general  laws, 


78  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

spiritual  or  natural ;  by  merely  having  some  dor- 
mant faculties  of  his  being  excited  into  action.  Oh 
how  ignorant  we  all  are  of  the  latent  heat,  the  latent 
light,  the  latent  electricities  and  magnetisms  of  the 
Human  Soul ! 

There  are  two  wonderful  narratives,  one  in  the 
Old,  the  other  in  the  New  Testament,  which  beau- 
tifully illustrate  and  are  illustrated  by  this  doctrine 
of  the  spiritual  body.  Their  exposition  is  not  only 
interesting  in  itself,  making  clear  what  was  dark 
before,  but  it  will  unfold  the  very  process  by  which 
Swedenborg's  eyes  were  opened  into  the  spiritual 
world. 

Elijah  and  Elisha,  the  old  Prophet  and  his  dis- 
ciple, walk  along  down  to  the  river  Jordan,  con- 
versing about  the  wonderful  event  impending, 
the  instantaneous  translation  of  Elijah  to  heaven. 
Fifty  sons  of  the  prophets  come  along  also,  to  view 
afar  off  the  wonderful  scene.  Elijah  and  Elisha 
cross  the  Jordan,  the  fifty  witnesses  remaining 
behind. 

Elijah,  aware  of  his  approaching  dissolution, 
says  to  Elisha, 

"  Ask  what  I  shall  do  for  thee,  befoie  I  be  taken 
away  from  thee." 

Elisha  replies : 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE   THEY?  79 

rt  I  pray  thee,  let  a  double  portion  of  thy  spirit 
be  upon  me." 

The  old  Prophet,  knowing  well  from  long  ex- 
perience how  spiritual  vision  was  effected,  re- 
sponds: 

"  Thou  hast  asked  a  hard  thing:  nevertheless,  if 
thou  see  me  when  I  am  taken  from  thee,  it  shall  be 
so  unto  thee :  but  if  not,  it  shall  not  be  so." 

This  seems  like  a  very  strange  answer.  There 
they  stand  in  the  open  light  of  day.  Fifty  wit- 
nesses are  looking  on  beyond  the  little  river.  If 
chariots  and  horsemen  were  coming  to  take  the 
physical  body  of  Elijah  into  heaven,  what  was  to 
hinder  Elisha  and  the  fifty  witnesses  watching  across 
the  river  from  seeing  every  thing  that  occurred? 

Elijah  knew  that  his  translation  could  not  be 
seen  with  the  natural  eye.  He  knew  that  unless 
Elisha's  spiritual  eyes  were  opened,  he  could  not 
possibly  see  the  spiritual  conveyance  which  was 
coming  for  him.  He  knew  that  the  Lord  alone 
could  open  his  spiritual  eyes  and  make  his  ascent 
heavenward  visible.  That  opening  of  the  spiritual 
eyes  would  be  a  sign  that  Elisha  would  inherit  the 
prophetical  office.  He  would  then  be  i  Seer — one 
who  sees  things  which  others  do  not  and  cannot 
see. 


80  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

The  expected  event  takes  place.  Elisha  sees  the 
chariots  and  horsemen  of  Israel ;  he  sees  the  spir- 
itual (not  the  natural  body)  of  Elijah  ascend  :  he 
catches  the  falling  mantle ;  he  thinks — for  so  it  ap- 
peared from  his  stand-point— that  Elijah  ascended 
bodily  into  heaven :  for  no  man  has  any  conscious- 
ness of  the  opening  of  his  spiritual  eyes.  It  seems 
to  him  that  he  sees  objects  as  before  with  his  natu- 
ral eyes. 

Not  so,  however,  the  fifty  bystanders  across  the 
little  river,  whose  spiritual  eyes  were  not  opened ; 
but  who  were  straining  their  natural  eyes  to  see  all 
that  was  to  be  seen.  They  saw  no  chariot,  no 
horsemen,  no  ascending  Elijah.  They  saw  a  whirl- 
wind, and  no  doubt  the  material  body  of  Elijah, 
abandoned  by  its  spiritual  form,  carried  aloft  and 
away.  So  fully  persuaded  were  they  that  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  had  cast  Elijah's  body  away  off  on 
some  mountain  or  valley,  that  they  entreated  Elisha 
to  permit  them  to  go  in  search  of  it.  Viewing  the 
matter  from  a  different  stand-point,  he  at  first  re- 
fused. They  insisted :  he  consented :  and  they 
searched  three  days  in  vain.  Neither  party  saw  the 
whole  transaction.  The  evidence  of  both  is  neces- 
sary to  make  it  intelligible. 

Again :  our  Lord  takes  three  favorite   lisciples 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE  THEY?  81 

with  him  up  into  a  high  mountain ;  and  as  He 
prays,  an  astounding  change  takes  place  in  his  per- 
sonal appearance.  His  garments  become  "  white 
and  glistering,"  and  "his  face  did  shine  as  the 
sun." 

Moses  and  Elias  then  become  visible  and  talk 
with  him  about  his  approaching  crucifixion.  After 
a  while  the  vision  disappears,  and  the  amazed  dis- 
ciples find  themselves  alone  with  Jesus  in  his  usual 
form. 

The  disciples  narrated  the  event  just  as  it  ap- 
peared to  their  senses.  They  believed,  and  the 
Apostolic  Church  believes  to  this  day,  that  the 
natural  body  and  clothing  of  our  Lord  underwent 
some  miraculous  transformation;  and  that  Moses 
and  Elias  came  down  from  heaven  in  some  incom- 
prehensible way,  and  appeared  bodily  to  the  natural 
eye  on  a  mountain  of  Judea.  The  disciples  did 
not  know,  nor  do  the  majority  of  Christians  to- 
day suspect,  that  the  real  change  took  place  in  the 
spiritual  sight  of  the  witnesses  themselves.  No 
one  whose  spiritual  eyes  were  not  open,  would  have 
seen  or  heard  any  thing  which  there  and  then  hap- 
pened. Had  such  a  person,  rambling  about  the 
mountain,  stumbled  on  the  party  and  watched 

them,  unseen   himself,  he   would   have   conscien- 
D  * 


82  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

tiously  pronounced  the  strange  story  of  the  disci- 
ples a  gross  fabrication  or  a  wild  hallucination  of 
the  senses. 

Before  they  saw  the  wonders  of  the  transfigura- 
tion, their  external  senses  were  laid  asleep ;  for  says 
the  Evangelist:  "They  were  heavy  with  sleep;  and 
when  they  were  awake,  they  saw  his  glory  and  the 
two  men  that  stood  with  him."  Again,  it  is  re- 
corded that  as  the  scene  passed  away,  "a  cloud 
overshadowed  them."  This  momentary  darkness 
or  sleep  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  spiritual 
vision,  is  common.  It  is  described  by  Swedenborg 
as  occurring  in  his  own  case;  and  is  caused,  no 
doubt,  by  the  transition,  in  the  first  place,  from 
natural  to  spiritual  sight,  and  in  the  second,  back 
again  from  spiritual  to  natural  vision. 

The  disciples  saw  the  glorious  Spiritual  Body  of 
our  Lord,  such  as  it  appears  now  to  the  angels  in 
heaven,  when  they  get  into  those  elevated  states  of 
feeling  and  thought  representated  by  ascending  a 
very  high  mountain.  They  saw  the  spiritual  bodies 
of  Moses  and  Elias,  and  they  heard  the  conversa- 
tion between  them  and  Jesus  with  their  spiritual 
ears.  John  saw  and  heard  the  wonders  of  the 
Apocalypse  in  the  same  manner.  A  bystander 
would  not  have  shared  the  sights  or  the  sounds 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE   T-UEY?  83 

with  him,  and  would  no  doubt  have  pronounced 
him  insane. 

These  and  many  other  similar  cases  recorded  in 
the  Word — unintelligible  mysteries  when  viewed 
from  the  literal  stand-point — embody  the  very  laws 
and  phenomena  of  the  life  to  come.  They  contain 
the  germinal  points  of  the  only  rational  psychology ; 
but  a  faithless  generation,  a  degenerate  church,  an 
unbelieving  world,  class  them  with  visions  and 
compare  them  to  dreams  ! 

The  apostle  Paul's  naive  version  of  his  own  case 
is  strongly  confirmatory  of  Swedenborg's  statements, 
which  throw  back  on  it  a  reciprocal .  light,  making 
it  more  intelligible. 

"  I  will  come  to  visions  and  revelations  from  the 
Lord.  I  knew  a  man  in  Christ  above  fourteen 
years  ago  (whether  in  the  body,  I  cannot  tell ;  or 
whether  out  of  the  body,  I  cannot  tell :  God  know- 
eth) ;  such  an  one  caught  up  to  the  third  heaven. 

"And  I  knew  such  a  man  (whether  in  the  body 
or  out  of  the  body,  I  cannot  tell :  God  knoweth), 

"  How  that  he  was  caught  up  into  paradise,  and 
heard  unspeakable  words,  which  it  is  not  lawful 
[or,  more  correctly  translated,  is  not  possible]  for  a 
man  to  utter." 

Paul's  external  senses  are  made  quiescent,  and 


84  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

he  visits  in  the  spiritual  body,  just  as  Swedenborg 
did,  the  angels  of  the  third  or  highest  heaven.  He 
cannot  understand  his  condition.  He  knows  he  is 
not  dead,  for  he  is  still  on  the  earth.  He  knows 
he  has  been  to  heaven,  for  he  conversed  with  angels. 
He  felt  himself  to  be  in  the  same  body  while  in 
heaven;  and  still  he  could  not  imagine  how  that 
h/>avy,  material  form  could  have  been  caught  up 
into  paradise,  where  he  heard  and  saw  such  won- 
derful things.  His  mind  was  not  enlightened  as 
to  the  nature  or  method  of  his  elevation;  and  he 
never  knew  in  this  life  whether  he  had  been  "  in 
the  body  or  out  of  the  body/' 

Swedenborg  states  also  that  the  wisdom  or  light 
of  the  angels  in  the  third  heaven  is  so  great,  that 
it  is  incommunicable  to  those  from  inferior  spheres. 
When  spirits  are  elevated  thither  by  certain  methods, 
they  see  and  hear  what  Paul  did,  and  understand 
it  all  while  in  mental  rapport  with  the  inhabitants; 
but  so  soon  as  they  return  to  their  own  inferior 
places,  it  either  escapes  their  memory  entirely,  or  it 
is  impossible  for  them  to  clothe  the  ideas  in  intel- 
ligible language.  This  was  the  case  with  Paul. 
He  heard  things  when  his  spiritual  ears  were  opened, 
which,  in  his  ordinary  natural  state,  he  found  it 
"impossible  to  utter." 


WHAT  HO  DIES  HAVE   THEY?  85 

The  great  Apostle's  apparently  fruitless  visit  to 
the  celestial  spheres  was  a  precious  legacy  to  the 
Church;  embodying  the  sublime  and  almost  for- 
gotten truth,  that  it  is  possible  for  a  man  while 
living  in  this  world  to  be  caught  up  into  paradise, 
to  see  and  hear  the  wonders  of  heaven,  and  to  con- 
tinue a  long  while  afterwards  to  discharge  his  duties 
upon  earth.  This  first  recorded  visit,  this  mere 
peep  into  the  highest  heaven,  was  prophetic  of  the 
thorough  and  prolonged  intercourse  with  the  world 
of  spirits  vouchsafed  seventeen  hundred  years  after 
to  another  servant  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Swedenborg's  spiritual  eyes  were  opened  in  the 
year  1743,  and  so  continued,  with  an  intermission 
of  but  a  few  days,  until  his  death  in  1772,  a  period 
of  twenty-nine  years.  His  pure  and  peaceful  life 
had  been  earnestly  devoted  to  scientific  and  philo- 
sophical pursuits.  He  had  never  paid  any  special 
attention  to  theology ;  and  this  new  and  strange 
mission,  for  which  he  had  been  silently  prepared 
by  the  Divine  Providence,  came  upon  him  with  a 
shock  of  surprise.  He  thenceforth  led  a  double 
life — preparing  and  publishing  in  this  world  the 
stores  of  spiritual  wisdom  he  had  gathered  in  the 
other. 

The  case  of  this  man  is  altogether  unique  in  the 

8 


86  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

history  of  mankind.  It  presents  very  few  points 
of  resemblance  to  the  case  of  any  previous  Seer, 
Ileformer,  or  Spiritualist,  in  the  world.  It  must 
be  judged  rather  by  its  points  of  dissimilarity. 
The  dignity  of  his  demeanor  was  worthy  of  the 
grandeur  of  his  mission.  He  made  no  pretensions, 
sought  no  discussions,  attempted  no  conversions; 
but  in  sublime  silence  planted  the  seed  of  the  new 
kingdom  of  God — that  seed  which  is  "  less  than 
all  the  seed  that  be  in  the  earth;  but  when  it  is 
sown,  it  groweth  up  and  becometh  greater  than  all 
herbs,  and  shooteth  out  great  branches,  so  that  the 
fowls  of  the  air  may  lodge  under  the  shadow  of 
it." 

As  there  is  no  possible  avenue  into  the  spiritual 
world  except  through  the  spiritual  body,  so  there 
is  no  way  out  of  it  back  to  earth  except  through 
the  same  medium.  No  spirit  or  angel  can  resume 
a  material  body,  or  appear  in  the  natural  world,  in 
a  form  which  reflects  the  light  of  our  sun.  They 
know  nothing  that  transpires  in  this  mundane 
sphere,  except  through  the  spirits  of  people  in  this 
world  with  whom  they  are  consociated.  They  can 
be  brought  into  such  rapport  with  the  spiritual 
body  of  a  man  living  on  earth,  that  they  can  read 
his  thoughts  and  direct  his  motions;  and  if  the 


WHAT  HO  DIES  HAVE   THEY?  87 

man's  spiritual  senses  are  open  at  the  same  time, 
they  can  see  through  his  eyes  and  hear  through  his 
ears  what  is  transacting  in  this  outer  world. 

This  is  the  key  to  the  fact,  which  at  first  blush 
appears  so  incredible,  that  Polheim,  a  celebrated 
Swedish  minister  and  intimate  friend  of  Sweden- 
borg,  witnessed  the  ceremonies  of  his  own  funeral. 
He  was  surprised,  as  all  new-comers  are  in  the 
other  life,  at  finding  himself  alive  and  apparently 
in  the  same  body;  but  when  he  looked  through 
Swedenborg's  eyes  into  the  natural  world  and  saw 
his  own  material  body  laid  out  in  state,  his  amaze- 
ment was  extreme.  He  attended  the  burial  of  his 
own  corpse,  conversing  on  the  way  with  Sweden- 
borg  concerning  the  ignorance  and  darkness  of  the 
church  and  the  world  about  the  true  meaning  of 
the  resurrection  from  the  dead. 

One  spirit,  newly  deceased,  who  was  attending 
his  own  funeral,  heard  (through  Swedenborg  as  a 
medium)  the  minister  say,  that  the  body  of  their 
departed  friend  would  rise  from  his  long  sleep  at 
the  resurrection-day.  He  entreated  Swedenborg 
to  tell  the  audience  that  he  had  already  risen  from 
the  dead,  and  that  he  was  then  and  there  present 
in  a  spiritual  body.  Had  Swedenborg  complied 
with  the  solicitation  of  his  invisible  companion, 


88  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

his  announcement  of  the  most  beautiful  truth 
would  have  been  received  with  unbounded  de- 
rision. 

The  good  angels,  breathing  always  a  living  at- 
mosphere of  peace  and  beauty,  had  little  desire  to 
turn  away  from  it  and  peer  through  Swedenborg's 
eyes  into  the  darkness  of  our  disorderly  world. 
They  could  not  help  seeing  and  hearing  something 
which  shocked  or  pained  them.  He  once  noticed 
some  little  boys  fighting  in  the  streets,  the  by- 
standers encouraging  the  combat  —  a  disgusting 
spectacle  common  enough  in  our  own  age  and 
country.  The  angels  who  witnessed  it  through 
his  eyes,  and  sensed  the  spiritual  sphere  of  hell 
which  surrounded  the  scene,  were  filled  with  inex- 
pressible distress  and  agitation. 

The  idea  of  spirits  or  departed  friends  gliding 
invisibly  around  us  and  watching  our  movements 
is  a  popular  delusion.  There  are  no  ghosts,  but 
such  as  are  generated  in  weak,  excited,  or  diseased 
brains,  and  projected  outwardly  as  hallucinations. 
The  spiritual  and  natural  worlds  do  not  pass  in- 
sensibly into  each  other,  like  light  into  shade  or 
heat  into  cold.  They  are  utterly  different  in  ma- 
terial. They  are  connected  solely  by  correspond- 
ence ;  and  no  person  in  the  spiritual  world  can  see 


WHAT  JiODIES  HAVE   THEY?  89 

into  this  world,  except  through  the  eyes  of  some 
human  being  still  living  in  it. 

Our  spiritual  bodies  may  become  visible  in 
heaven.  We  may  thus  commune  with  spirits  from 
other  planets  or  worlds  even  beyond  our  solar  sys- 
tem. If  any  of  those  spirits  should  be  in  rapport 
with  some  human  being  still  living  on  those  dis- 
tant orbs,  we  might  see  through  his  eyes  into  his 
physical  world  also.  Swedenborg  thus  saw  spirits 
from  some  of  our  planets,  and  from  some  earths 
away  off  in  the  sidereal  abysses.  A  chain  of  com- 
municating mediums  might  thus  be  established 
from  world  to  world  and  system  to  system,  and 
sensation,  thought,  and  affection  transmitted  along 
the  line  from  one  part  of  the  universe  to  another. 

Our  traveler  by  open  vision  gives  us  some  won- 
derful accounts,  as  might  be  expected,  of  God's 
creatures  in  those  remote  regions  of  space.  They 
differ  sometimes  amazingly  from  us,  so  that  they 
cannot  understand  or  appreciate  our  peculiar  modes 
of  thought  and  feeling.  One  spirit  from  a  very 
distant  globe  was  brought  into  such  rapport  with 
Swedenborg  that  he  looked  through  his  eyes  into 
the  streets  of  a  European  city.  The  scene  was  so 
different  from  any  thing  that  he  had  ever  witnessed 
or  imagined,  and  the  sphere  of  it,  in  which  evil 


90  0  UR   CHILDREN  IN  HE  A  YEN. 

predominated,  was  so  revolting  to  him,  that  he  fled 
away  in  terror. 

Some  cavilers  have  demanded  why  Swedenborg, 
when  describing  the  spirits  who  came  from  Mars, 
Venus,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn,  did  not  go  further  and 
tell  us  something  of  the  inhabitants  of  those  more 
remote  planets  which  astronomers  had  not  dis- 
covered in  his  day.  The  answer  probably  is,  that 
those  vast  orbs,  so  distant  from  the  heat  and  light 
of  the  sun,  are  still  undergoing  the  immense  series 
of  geological  changes  necessary  to  prepare  them  for 
the  habitation  of  human  beings,  and  that,  there- 
fore, no  spirits  have  ever  come  from  them. 

We  have  not  been  too  prolix,  if  we  have  suc- 
ceeded in  impressing  on  the  reader's  mind  the  im- 
portance, truth,  and  beauty  of  this  doctrine  of  a 
spiritual  body.  It  is  the  central,  pivotal  point  of 
Swedenborg's  grand  system  of  Psychology.  It  has 
science,  reason,  and  revelation  to  commend  it.  The 
only  charge  against  it  is  its  strangeness.  View  it  in 
all  its  connections  and  relations,  comparing  it  care- 
fully with  the  Written  Word: — the  strangeness 
will  disappear.  You  will  discover  that  it  was  only 
the  newness  of  that  glorious  Second  Advent  Era, 
of  which  our  Lord  declared : 

"  Behold !  I  make  all  things  new." 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE   THEY?  91 

Some  persons  are  startled  at  the  statement,  that 
the  spiritual  bodies  of  our  little  children  who  have 
left  us,  continue  to  grow  until  they  attain  the  full 
stature  of  manhood  and  womanhood.  They  expect 
to  meet  the  little  creatures  who  died  ten  or  twenty 
years  ago,  and  find  them  the  same  small,  dependent, 
imperfect  beings.  This  idea  has  arisen,  no  doubt, 
from  the  belief  that  the  soul  or  spirit  will  finally 
be  reunited  to  the  same  material  body  which  was 
laid  in  the  grave ;  for  we  cannot  imagine  how  a 
fully-grown  and  developed  spirit  can  reanimate 
the  form  of  a  babe.  When  we  cast  behind  us  for 
ever  that  odious  dead-weight  on  Christian  progress 
— the  doctrine  of  a  fleshly  resurrection  —  which 
Coleridge  condemns  as  a  gross  Egyptian  super- 
stition, we  may  advance  into  clearer  and  purer 
light,  and  see  the  necessity  and  the  rationality  of 
the  continued  growth  of  the  spiritual  body. 

Mothers,  whose  love  for  their  infants  is  kept  alive 
in  their  hearts  by  the  memory  of  its  objective  mani- 
festations, wish  earnestly  to  see  them  again  just  as 
they  were.  They  remember  the  sweet  little  face 
pressing  itself  gladly  against  the  maternal  bosom ; 
the  kisses  which  they  showered  on  the  pearl-white 
forehead ;  the  delicate  hands  and  feet,  more  beauti- 
fully tinted  than  ocean  shells ;  the  thousand  grace- 


92  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

fill  gestures,  and  the  endearing  sounds  which  make 
such  ravishing  music  in  the  mother's  heart. 

Now  all  these  precious  little  associations,  which 
make  up  the  identity  of  the  child  in  the  mind  of 
the  mother,  never  perish.  It  is  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  other  life,  that  our  mental  states  are  all  rolled 
up  like  a  vast  map,  which  can  be  unrolled  again, 
bringing  back  in  its  fullness  every  thought,  affection 
and  deed  of  our  past  existence.  A  still  more  won- 
derful thing  follows.  Those  acts  of  memory  there 
are  not  vague  pictures  of  the  imagination,  or  con- 
ceptive  faculty,  as  they  are  here ;  but  they  may  be 
projected  outwardly,  taking  visible  shape  and  scenic 
representation,  accurately  repeating  everything  that 
transpired. 

A  man  can  thus  be  made  to  reappear  just  as  he 
was  when  a  boy,  or  even  a  babe,  with  every  most 
minute  particular  of  form  and  dress.  A  panorama 
of  our  whole  lives  can  thus  be  unrolled  and  pre- 
sented for  inspection,  not  as  painting,  but  as  statu- 
ary. These  retrospections  frequently  take  place,  for 
the  discovery  of  truth,  for  the  identification  of  in- 
dividuals, for  instruction,  and  for  uses  connected 
with  regeneration  or  judgment.  Swedenborg  tells 
of  two  brothers  who  had  been  alienated  in  the 
world,  and  whose  misunderstandings  were  dissi- 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE   THEY?  93 

patcd  by  both  being  brought  back  into  their  early 
states  of  life,  when  the  old  fountains  of  fraternal 
affection  burst  forth  with  indescribable  sweetness 
'and  purity. 

But  these  are  retrospections ;  the  law  of  the  uni- 
verse is  progress.  How  selfish  and  cruel  it  would 
be  for  us  to  wish  that  our  beautiful  child  of  two 
summers  should  remain  always  a  child  of  two  sum- 
mers; an  imperfect,  undeveloped,  helpless  being, 
unconscious  of  the  myriad  beauties  of  nature  and 
art ;  untouched  by  the  sweetest  and  holiest  passions 
of  the  soul ;  unillumined  by  the  splendors  of  ever- 
expanding  thought ;  and  unblessed  by  the  glorious 
visions  of  God  and  immortality  !  What  would  be 
a  painful,  pitiable  abortion  in  this  world,  would  be 
still  more  so  in  the  next.  No.  Every  human  being 
was  created  to  attain  the  full  measure  of  a  man, 
which,  as  the  Revelation  assures  us,  is  "  that  of  an 
angel." 

The  spiritual  body  does  not  grow  and  is  not  nour- 
ished by  the  appropriation  of  such  food  as  nourishes 
the  natural  body,  but  by  the  acquisition  of  truth 
and  its  corresponding  goodness.  A  continual  influx 
and  efflux  of  natural  substances  keeps  our  material 
forms  in  proper  condition.  A  similar  influx  and 
efflux  of  spiritual  affections  and  thoughts  sustains 


94  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

our  spiritual  bodies.  Spirits  have  the  senses  of 
sight,  hearing,  smell,  and  touch,  vastly  more  acute 
than  man  ;  but  the  sense  of  taste  is  almost  nothing, 
it  is  so  obscure.  The  tables  of  the  other  world  are 
shadowy  in  comparison  with  ours.  Delicate  breads, 
aromal  fruits,  nectars,  wines,  and  flowers :  symbols 
of  spiritual  things  rather  than  food.  Their  feasts 
are  social  gatherings,  where  Wisdom  and  Charity 
preside,  and  where  the  ideas  and  emotions  of  the 
happy  guests  are  reproduced  around  them  in  grace- 
ful representative  forms,  as  the  souls  of  artists  and 
poets  are  projected  outwardly  in  painting  and  song. 
The  changes  which  the  spiritual  body  undergoes 
after  death  are  representative  of  the  changes  which 
are  taking  place  in  the  soul  itself.  The  child  grows 
by  becoming  more  rational,  intelligent,  and  truly 
spiritual,  until  it  attains  the  full  development  of 
man  or  woman;  for  angels,  also,  are  male  and 
female.  Those  who  die  in  infancy  always  retain  a 
fresh  and  youthful  appearance ;  and  those  who  die 
advanced  in  years,  if  they  have  lived  on  earth  a 
life  of  charity,  return  to  the  freshness  and  bloom 
of  early  manhood  or  womanhood.  There  is  a  beau- 
tiful new  infancy  and  childhood  dormant,  like  a 
bird  in  the  shell,  in  the  old,  wrinkled,  and  tottering 
forms  of  all  such  while  in  the  flesh.  Many  per- 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE  THEY?  95 

sons,  who  are  uninstructed  in  these  matters,  will  be 
amazed  to  find  the  dear  old  grandmothers  and 
grandfathers,  who  passed  away  from  them  with 
gray  heads  and  wrinkled  faces,  transformed  into 
beautiful  and  blooming  beings  in  the  prime  of  life ! 
Spiritual  time  measures  only  the  progress  towards 
perfection,  and  has  no  ravages  to  display. 

The  spiritual  body  appears,  immediately  after  its 
resurrection,  the  perfect  image  and  counterpart  of 
the  natural  body,  from  which  it  was  extricated. 
Every  imperfection  in  form,  feature,  speech,  or 
motion  is  retained;  for  nothing  ever  existed  in 
the  natural  body  but  by  correspondence  with  some- 
thing in  the  spiritual.  So  they  are  perfectly  alike. 
The  spiritual  body  is  even  for  a  time  clad  in  the 
same  kind  of  garments,  to  all  appearance,  which 
the  man  wore  on  earth — a  fact  which  shows  to  the 
denizens  of  the  other  world  that  he  is  a  new-comer 
from  our  own.  He  is  not  arrayed  in  the  "fine 
linen"  of  the  saints,  until  his  interior  life  has  been 
brought  into  perfect  harmony  with  that  of  the 
saints. 

The  spiritual  body  begins  changing  with  the 
removal  or  separation  of  the  evil  spheres,  heredi- 
tary and  acquired,  which  are  so  closely  interwoven 
with  our  moral  structures.  These  evil  spheres  are 


96  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

the  sole  causes  of  the  Unbeautiful  in  man  and 
nature,  and  of  all  the  deviations  from  the  perfect 
lines  of  beauty  and  order  in  the  universe.  As  the 
spirit  is  gradually  disentangled  from  these  spheres 
by  the  wonderful  processes  of  exploration,  judg- 
ment, and  instruction,  which  take  place  in  the  in- 
termediate world  of  spirits,  its  progress  is  pictured 
in  the  improved  and  beautified  state  of  its  spiritual 
body.  Every  deformity  or  imperfection  gradually 
disappears.  Every  line  of  care  and  sorrow  is  re- 
moved; every  trace  of  passion  or  selfishness  or 
sensuality  is  obliterated.  The  faces  of  some  per- 
sons undergo  such  astonishing  changes,  that  it  is 
difficult  at  first  for  their  nearest  friends  just  coming 
into  the  spiritual  world  to  recognize  them.  The 
faces  of  the  angels  become  so  extremely  beautiful, 
with  infinite  variety,  as  to  baffle  all  efforts  at  de- 
scription. 

By  the  same  organic  law  of  the  spiritual  world, 
that  the  exteriors  and  interiors  shall  correspond, 
those  who  grow  in  evil  grow  in  ugliness  and  de- 
formity. Evil  spirits  become  terribly  hideous  in 
the  light  of  heaven  ;  but  as  their  tastes  are  as  per- 
verted as  their  forms,  they  continue  to  think  them- 
selves models  of  beauty  and  wisdom. 

Man,  being  a  free  agent,  is  capable  of  thinking 


WHAT  BODIES  HAVE  THEY?  97 

one  thing  and  saying  another;  of  feeling  in  one 
way,  and  pretending  to  feel  in  the  opposite.  This 
great  sin  of  deceit  has  degraded  the  race  for  thou- 
sands of  years,  and  transmitted  its  ever-increasing 
physical  marks  from  father  to  son,  until  very  few 
persons  in  the  world  can  be  said  to  have  absolutely 
their  own  faces.  The  great  judgment  awaiting  each 
individual  directly  after  death  will  rectify  all  this, 
and  beauty  will  be  given  only  to  those  to  whom 
beauty  belongs. 

"  To  grow  old  in  heaven,"  says  Swedenborg,  "  is 
to  grow  young."  There  is  no  permanent  child- 
hood there,  nor  old  age,  but  only  glorious  man- 
hood and  womanhood.  There  is  no  autumn  or 
winter,  but  only  spring  and  summer.  There  is  no 
night  there,  but  only  morning  and  evening.  There 
is  no  heat  there  but  the  glow  of  Love;  no  light  but 
the  brightness  of  Truth.  There  is  no  God  there 

but  the  Divine  Man,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
r  E 


CHAPTER    IV. 

WHERE    DO    THEY    GO? 

TS  it  not  wonderful  that  any  human  being,  not 
J-  actually  insane,  should  have  doubted  the  final 
salvation  of  infants  and  little  children  ? 

Read  the  beautiful  teachings  of  our  Lord  him- 
self on  this  subject : 

"  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and 
forbid  them  not;  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
God." 

"And  He  took  a  child  and  set  him  in  the  midst 
of  them ;  and  when  He  had  taken  him  in  his  arms, 
He  said  unto  them  : 

'  Whosoever  shall  receive  one  of  such  children 
in  my  name,  receiveth  me.' ;: 

"  Take  heed  that  ye  despise  not  one  of  these  little 
ones ;  for  I.  say  unto  you  that  in  heaven  their  angels 
do  always  behold  the  face  of  my  Father  which  is 
in  heaven." 

"Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Whosoever  shall  not 
receive  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  shall 
in  no  wise  enter  therein." 

98 


WHERE  DO    THEY  GO?  99 

"  Even  so,  it  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father  which 
is  in  heaven,  that  one  of  these  little  ones  should 
perish." 

In  the  face  of  these  teachings,  the  letter  and 
spirit  of  which  are  so  heavenly,  the  logical  neces- 
sities of  a  false  theology  have  driven  some  of  its 
leaders  in  former  times  into  the  execrable  doctrine, 
that  there  were  infants  and  children  in  hell !  The 
same  logical  necessities  still  exist;  but  the  heart 
of  humanity  has  outgrown  its  creed :  no  one  be- 
lieves it  now. 

We  can  imagine  that  in  an  age  of  great  moral 
darkness,  when  persecution  and  torture  for  op- 
posing religious  opinions  were  considered  accept- 
able to  God,  grave  and  learned  divines  might 
persuade  themselves  and  even  others,  that  there 
were  myriads  of  infants  in  hell  "not  more  than  a 
span  long."  What  shall  we  say  when  the  great 
poet,  the  man  with  "the  vision  and  faculty  divine," 
loses  his  intuitive  perception  of  truth,  and  describes 
the  other  life  as  it  appears  through  the  dark  veil 
woven  of  ecclesiastical  cobwebs  ? 

Dante  inscribed  over  the  sombre  arch  of  the  gate 
*o  hell  these  awful  words: 

"All  hope  abandon,  ye  who  enter  here." 

On  getting  into  the  first  circle  of  the  infernal 


100  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

realm,  he  reports  the  whole  air  tremulous  with  the 
eternal  wails  of  a  vast  multitude  of  infants,  who 
had  never  been  baptized  into  the  church.  Oh,  the 
cruel  tyranny  of  the  Religious  Idea,  when  it  reflects 
the  unregenerate  human  heart  and  not  the  will  of 
God! 

From  these  dreamers,  clerical  and  lay,  let  us  turn 
to  the  testimony  of  the  Seer,  who  describes  so  clearly 
and  truthfully  what  he  has  heard  and  seen.  "  Hea- 
ven and  its  wonders,  and  Hell ;  from  things  heard 
and  seen ;"  is  the  title  of  one  of  his  books. 

"  I  have  been  informed  of  a  certainty  that  all 
infants  who  die  throughout  the  whole  world,  are 
raised  up  by  the  Lord  and  conveyed  into  heaven ; 
and  are  there  educated  and  instructed  by  the  angels 
who  have  the  care  of  them;  and  also  grow  up  to 
maturity  as  they  advance  in  intelligence  and  wis- 
dom. It  may  be  seen,  therefore,  how  immense  the 
heaven  of  the  Lord  would  be,  if  it  were  composed 
of  little  children  only ;  for  they  are  all  instructed 
in  the  truths  of  faith  and  in  the  good  things  of 
mutual  love,  and  become  angels." 

At  what  age,  then,  does  moral  responsibility  be- 
gin ?  Are  not  many  children  fully  sensible  of  the 
difference  between  right  and  wrong  at  a  very  early 
period  ?  Many  a  parent's  heart  has  been  saddened 


WHERE  DO    THEY  GO?  101 

by  great  clouds  of  fear  and  doubt  on  this  subject. 
Some  beautiful  and  intelligent  child  of  ten  or  fifteen 
years,  has  been  snatched  away  into  the  world  of 
spirits  without  having  made  any  special  confession 
of  sin,  without  repentance,  without  what  is  called 
"  saving  faith,"  without  conversion. 
f  Will  such  a  child  go  to  heaven,  with  all  its  little 
imperfections  on  its  head  ?  Sombre  theologians 
look  grave  and  are  puzzled  at  the  question.  The 
pietistic  books  of  the  churches  give  no  light,  but 
excite  suspicion  and  foster  apprehension.  The  un- 
covenanted  mercy  of  God  is  the  forlorn  hope. 
Thorns  pierce  the  parental  heart.  Many  cypress 
leaves  are  interwoven  in  the  chaplet  of  roses  which 
adorns  the  graves  of  such  little  ones. 

The  point  acquires  a  still  more  painful  interest, 
because  the  doubtful  element  is  increased,  when  the 
victim  of  death  is  just  verging  into  a  radiant,  happy, 
and  hopeful  manhood  or  womanhood.  Overflowing 
with  natural  vivacity,  eager  for  the  gayeties,  the 
pleasures,  the  business  of  the  world,  the  young  spirit 
is  summoned  away  before  it  has  acquired  a  full  con- 
ception of  the  meaning  of  life  or  death ;  before  the 
religious  idea,  as  taught  by  the  dominant  theolo- 
gies, has  made  any  profound  impression  on  the 
mind  or  heart.  Without  faith  in  Christ,  with- 

9* 


102  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

out  conviction,  without  a  sense  of  justification, 
without  interest  in  God  or  spiritual  things,  how  can 
such  a  person  be  saved  ? 

It  is  useless  to  institute  comparisons  of  opinion 
where  all  alike  are  based,  not  upon  experimental 
knowledge,  but  on  theological  subtleties  of  inter- 
pretation. Passing  the  authorities  of  the  Old 
Church  entirely  by,  we  will  consult  the  heart- 
cheering,  soul-illuminating  revelations  of  the  New, 
thanking  God  for  the  light  which  has  come  into  the 
world. 

Swedenborg  divides  the  moral  states  of  our  life 
into  three  stages.  The  first  is  one  of  innocence  and 
ignorance,  extending  from  birth  to  the  age  of  five 
years.  The  second  is  the  stage  of  instruction,  or 
formation  of  the  elements  of  character,  reaching 
from  five  years  to  twenty.  The  third  is  the  period 
of  intelligence  and  rationality,  extending  from 
twenty  to  sixty,  or  to  death.  After  sixty  the  ten- 
dency is  to  revert  to  the  state  of  childhood  again, 
with  the  character  acquired  or  formed  during  life 
on  earth  as  the  basis  of  a  new  life  in  the  spiritual 
world. 

From  five  to  twenty  we  are  taught  by  masters, 
and  think,  not  from  and  of  ourselves,  but  under 
authority.  The  soul  grows,  as  the  body  grows. 


WHERE  DO   THEY  GO?  103 

We  arc  appropriating  and  assimilating  to  ourselves, 
during  that  period,  what  we  derive  from  others ; 
from  parents,  nurses,  teachers,  companions,  books, 
nature,  society,  &c.  Not  that  which  goes  into  a 
man  defiles  him ;  but  that  which  is  generated  within 
him  by  his  own  voluntary  powers,  and  proceeds 
from  him  as  his  own. 

No  one,  according  to  what  we  love  to  call  the 
"Heavenly  Doctrines/7  is  responsible  for  hereditary 
or  original  sin.  That  is  a  terrible  burden  we  all 
bear,  impelling  us  continually  to  violations  of  the 
moral  law.  We  only  suffer  the  penalty,  however, 
of  our  own  transgressions,  and  then  only  of  those 
committed  in  states  of  liberty  and  rationality.  No 
genuine  reformation  of  character  takes  place  in 
states  of  ignorance,  insanity,  sickness,  or  coercion, 
whether  mental  or  physical.  Therefore  persons 
under  twenty,  or  thereabouts,  are  not  fully  respon- 
sible, because  they  are  not  in  states  of  liberty  or 
rationality.  They  are  not  freed  from  the  necessary 
mastership  of  other  wills  than  their  own ;  nor  is 
the  rational  faculty  fairly  developed.  There  can  be 
no  genuine  spiritual  life  until  it  is  voluntarily 
sought  after  in  a  state  of  maturity,  physical  and 
psychological. 

We  may  safely  assume,  that  no  one  dying  under 


104  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

the  age  of  twenty  can  be  finally  lost ;  for,  no  mat- 
ter what  may  have  been  done  in  the  flesh,  it  will  be 
found,  on  the  final  adjustment,  when  all  things  are 
unraveled  and  made  right,  that  there  is  yet  enough 
spiritual  ground  to  be  created  (not  renovated  but 
created — the  soul,  like  the  body,  being  imperfect), 
for  heavenly  influences  still  to  prove  triumphant. 

There  is  authority  from  the  letter  of  the  Bible 
for  this  view  of  the  matter.  On  account  of  the 
murmurings  of  the  Hebrews  against  the  Lord,  the 
entire  generation  which  came  out  of  Egypt  over 
twenty  years  of  age,  with  the  exception  of  Caleb 
and  Joshua,  were  doomed  to  perish  in  the  wilder- 
ness. Those  under  twenty  were  spared  and  per- 
mitted to  enter  the  Holy  Land,  after  a  period  of 
trial  and  temptation.  They  were  exempted  be- 
cause they  were  not  considered  morally  responsible 
for  participating  in  the  sins  of  their  fathers. 

"We  are  not  condemned  for  evils  until  we  can 
discern,  analyze,  judge,  and  conclude  for  ourselves; 
and  until,  exercising  our  free  will  in  a  state  of  per- 
fect rationality  and  freedom,  we  deliberately  choose 
the  evil  way;  nor  does  all  hope  of  reformation  and 
final  salvation  vanish,  until  we  have  obstinately 
confirmed  ourselves  in  evil,  and  have  resisted  all 
the  good  influences  which  may  be  brought  to  bear 


WHERE  DO   THEY  GO?  105 

upon  us  both  in  this  world  and  in  the  world  of 
spirits. 

This  explains  why  it  is,  as  Swedenborg  assures  us, 
that  so  many  of  the  heathen  go  to  heaven.  Their 
souls  remain  in  an  imperfect  and  childlike  con- 
dition during  this  life ;  and  they  do  not  advance 
into  states  of  true  rationality  and  liberty  until  they 
enjoy  or  suffer  the  experiences  of  the  spiritual 
world.  The  worst  of  all  spirits  come  from  Chris- 
tendom,— a  fact  not  very  flattering  to  our  boasted 
civilization ;  and  the  very  lowest  depth  is  assigned 
to  those  who  have  used  the  insignia  of  piety  and 
the  machinery  of  the  Christian  church,  to  foster 
their  own  ambition  and  self-love  by  acquiring 
spiritual  dominion  over  the  minds  of  men. 

It  is  conceded,  then,  that  all  infants  and  children 
go  to  heaven. 

Heaven  !  Beautiful,  sweet,  inspiring  word !  Is 
it  imaginary,  or  is  it  because  the  Christian  heart  is 
so  frequently  and  sweetly  entranced  in  contempla- 
tion of  these  sacred  themes,  that  it  finds  such  a 
special,  tender,  musical  charm  in  the  words,  love, 
goodness,  innocence,  peace,  angels,  home,  heaven, 
and  the  Lord  ? 

"Where  and  what  is  Heaven  ? 

An  old  English  divine,  who  was  asked  whether 
E* 


106  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

heaven  was  a  state  or  a  place,  wisely  answered,  "A 
state  first,  and  a  place  afterward."  The  Christian 
church  is  well  acquainted  with  the  meaning  of  the 
heavenly  "  state"  as  attained  by  the  process  of  re- 
generation. It  has  made  many  ingenious  specu- 
lations about  the  heavenly  "place."  Swedenborg 
explains  to  us,  by  divine  authority,  the  true  nature 
of  both,  and  gives  the  key  of  correspondence  which 
unfolds  the  organic  connection  existing  between 
them. 

What  a  strange  idea  of  heaven  it  is,  that  our 
spirits  will  travel  over  illimitable  spaces,  upwards 
and  outwards,  far  away  beyond  our  visible  universe, 
into  some  vast  central  Sun,  where  they  will  find  the 
great  city  and  the  white  throne  and  the  jasper  sea ! 
As  if  a  mere  remove  on  the  same  plane,  however 
great,  from  our  present  habitat,  could  deliver  us 
from  the  bondage  of  time  and  space,  and  of  these 
perishing  material  forms,  and  bring  us  face  to  face 
with  the  verities  of  the  Lord's  spiritual  kingdom ! 

There  is  indeed  a  central  Sun ;  but  no  straight  or 
curved  line  drawn  from  our  terrestrial  bases  will 
ever  reach  it.  The  old  Chaldean  oracles,  fragments 
of  angelic  wisdom,  speak  of  two  Suns ;  and  of  one 
as  "  more  true"  than  the  other.  That  "  more  true" 
Sun  shines  throughout  the  entire  spiritual  universe, 


WHERE  DO    THEY  GO?  107 

and  its  beat  and  light  are  the  Love  and  Wisdom 
of  the  Divine  Man,  who  is  the  Centre  and  Life  of 
all  things. 

A  spiritual  universe  surrounds  and  interpene- 
trates the  entire  physical  universe.  Within  and 
around  each  planet  there  is  a  spiritual  orb  composed 
of  spiritual  substance  and  full  of  spiritual  inhabit- 
ants. There  are  three  series  of  these  vast  spiritual 
kingdoms,  one  above  another;  the  first,  second,  and 
third  heavens.  They  are  all  connected  together  and 
sustained  by  the  same  inflowing  Divine  Life.  The 
physical  universe  is  the  basis  or  pedestal  upon 
which  the  spiritual  stands.  It  precedes  it  in  de- 
velopment, and  is  "established  for  ever."  Here 
and  there  from  local  causes  a  planet  may  be  shat- 
tered or  a  star  expire ;  but  that  vast  webwork  of 
solar  systems  and  constellations  of  systems  and 
belts  of  constellations — this  physical  universe — is 
immovable  and  imperishable. 

Heaven  is  not  in  this  direction  or  that;  it  is 
neither  upward  nor  downward.  The  road  to  it  is 
not  measured  by  spaces  nor  estimated  by  times. 
Heaven  is  not  a  place  to  be  discovered  by  research; 
nor  a  city  which  can  be  reached  and  entered  by 
every  one,  although  its  gates  of  pearl  stand  open 
night  and  day.  Its  glory  is  invisible,  its  songs 


108  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

inaudible,  its  heights  inaccessible,  to  all  but  those 
who  bear  in  their  bosoms  the  heavenly  "state" 
which  creates  and  reveals  around  them  the  heavenly 
"place." 

How  plainly  does  our  Lord  assure  his  disciples 
that  heaven  is  neither  here  nor  there,  but  within 
themselves.  Flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God.  The  spiritual  body  alone  can 
rise  into  heaven.  To  give  a  philosophical  defini- 
tion :  Heaven  is  the  Lord  in  the  human  soul ;  the 
Lord's  love  and  wisdom  appropriated  and  reap- 
pearing as  affection  and  thought  in  the  heart  and 
brain,  or  in  the  will  and  understanding,  of  the  re- 
generate man.  "When  a  man  feels  and  thinks  as 
the  Lord  would  have  him  feel  and  think — when  the 
Lord's  will  is  done  in  the  spirit,  so  that  man  is  an 
image  or  likeness  of  God — he  has  heaven  within  him. 

The  heaven  without  and  around  the  angels,  the 
external  heaven,  the  place  which  philosophers  call 
"  the  objective,"  is  created  instantaneously  and  from 
moment  to  moment  by  the  Lord,  in  perfect  corre- 
spondence with  the  heaven  within,  or  with  the 
states  of  their  affections  and  thoughts  derived  from 
the  Lord.  The  causes  are  all  within ;  the  effects 
are  all  without.  The  outward  and  visible  sub- 
stances are  plastic  to  the  unseen  operations  of  the 


WHERE  DO   THEY  GO?  109 

spirit,  taking  forms  and  colors  according  to  the 
secret  changes  of  the  soul 

This  law  of  correspondence  between  the  internal 
and  the  external,  the  subjective  and  the  objective, 
is  the  grand  secret  of  creation ;  revealed  to  men 
in  the  golden  age,  and  lost  by  sin  and  sensuality ; 
concealed  in  all  ages  and  countries  in  parables  and 
fables  and  "  dark  sayings  of  old ;"  half  discovered 
by  poets  and  prophets  in  their  finest  frenzy ;  the 
key  to  the  speech  of  angels  and  the  Word  of  God ; 
now  restored  again  to  an  unbelieving  world,  by 
divine  direction,  through  the  agency  of  "  the  most 
unknown  man"  of  modern  times. 

The  angel's  inner  life  is  repeated  in  his  outer 
world.  According  to  his  reception  of  the  Lord's 
love  and  wisdom,  the  Sun  of  the  spiritual  world 
shines  for  him,  near  or  remote;  full  blazing  or 
belted  with  clouds ;  flaming  with  gold  or  gleaming 
with  silver.  His  residence  on  mountain-tops  or  in 
valleys ;  in  stately  forests  or  by  sounding  seas ;  in 
silken  tents,  or  wooden  houses,  or  palaces  of  spark- 
ling gems ;  his  urban  or  rural  home ;  his  city,  his 
temple,  his  associates,  his  raiment,  his  food,  his 
amusements,  his  business, — all  are  outbirths  or  cor- 
respondences flowing  from  his  own  interior  spiritual 

condition. 

10 


110  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

In  that  heavenly  country,  the  flowers  blossom 
and  the  birds  sing  responsive  to  angelic  thoughts. 
Morning  and  evening  come  and  go ;  spring  and 
summer  pass  and  return ;  not  in  obedience  to 
a  revolving  globe,  but  representing  the  far  more 
wonderful  revolutions  in  the  spiritual  life  of 
the  soul  itself.  The  world  without  him  is  a  magic 
mirror,  reproducing,  as  it  were,  in  painting  and 
statuary  and  music,  the  wonders  of  the  world 
within. 

We  cannot  here  describe  the  form  and  quarters 
and  times  and  spaces  of  heaven ;  the  Sun  there, 
and  its  heat  and  light ;  the  mansions,  the  govern- 
ment, the  worship ;  the  temples,  the  writings,  the 
marriages  ;  the  Word  of  God  there ;  the  speech  of 
the  angels;  their  power,  their  innocence,  their 
peace,  their  wisdom,  their  occupations ;  the  state  of 
the  rich  and  the  poor  there ;  of  the  wise  and  the 
simple ;  and  of  babes  and  little  children.  These 
precious  treasures  of  knowledge  are  all  contained 
in  Swedenborg's  "Heaven  and  Hell." 

They  will  familiarize  you  with  the  world  to 
come.  They  will  open  heaven  to  your  understand- 
ing. They  will  enable  you  to  follow  your  lost  ones 
into  the  other  life,  and  to  realize  in  your  delighted 
imagination  the  joy  and  the  peace  to  which  they 


WHERE  DO    THEY  GO?  Ill 

have  ascended.  They  will  shed  a  halo  of  spiritual 
beauty  around  your  life,  and  make  you  fearless  of 
death.  But  if,  in  the  fullness  of  your  gratitude 
and  the  rapture  of  your  enlightenment,  you  make 
a  feast  for  your  neighbors  and  friends,  and  call 
them  to  rejoice  with  you,  and  show  them  the  great 
jewel  you  have  discovered,  stand  prepared  for  the 
reception  which  the  truth  has  ever  suffered  from  the 
hands  of  those  whom  it  came  to  bless !  Some  will 
fly  from  you  like  wild  beasts  when  you  offer  them 
bread.  Others  will  turn  on  you  like  swine  tramp- 
ling pearls  beneath  their  feet.  Some  will  mock  you 
as  visionary ;  others  will  pity  you  as  insane.  Some 
few  will  believe.  Here  and  there  some  unquestion- 
ing Peter  will  leave  his  nets  to  follow  you ;  some 
forlorn  Magdalen  will  drop  her  tears  at  your  feet. 
It  is  difficult  for  those  trained  in  the  present 
sensuous  or  naturalistic  philosophy  to  understand 
how  the  Lord's  life  is  the  life  and  soul  of  heaven. 
Our  reception  of  the  Lord's  life  determines  the 
heaven  within  us  and  without  us.  There  is  no  life 
but  the  Lord's.  Men  are  organic  forms,  animated 
by  inflowing  forces  from  the  spiritual  world.  No 
affections  or  thoughts  originate  in  man.  The  Lord's 
life  is  an  infinite  current  of  Love  and  Wisdom, 
breaking,  as  it  falls  upon  created  forms,  into  multi- 


112  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

tudinous  sprays  of  affection  and  thought.  Man 
is  simply  the  mirror  which  reflects  the  Lord's 
light,  perfectly  or  imperfectly,  according  to  his 
atomic  arrangement,  his  organic  constitution.  He 
is  a  metal  expanding  under  heat ;  a  needle  turning 
in  the  magnetic  current ;  a  mill-wheel  impelled  by 
forces  independent  of  self.  His  self-will  determines 
the  reception  of  life  from  above,  and  the  use  made 
of  it ;  but  it  creates  nothing  of  its  own. 

All  loves,  with  their  infinite  varieties  of  affections 
and  delights,  are  derived  from  the  love  of  the  Lord 
to  his  creatures.  The  strongest  and  most  beautiful 
of  these  derivatives  are  the  conjugial  love  and  the 
parental  love.  They  are  the  fountain-heads  of  all 
the  charities  and  graces  of  domestic  and  social  life. 
The  Lord's  love  of  bestowing  Himself  in  creation 
upon  others,  transplanted  into  man,  becomes  con- 
jugial love;  and  his  love  of  protecting  and  per- 
petuating what  He  has  created,  becomes  our  parental 
love.  All  other  loves — the  love  of  the  neighbor, 
of  relatives,  of  friends,  of  the  church,  of  one's 
country ;  the  love  of  knowledge,  of  art,  of  useful 
labor ;  every  conceivable  form  of  the  passions  and 
emotions  of  the  human  soul, — are  simply  finite 
manifestations  of  the  Lord's  one,  loving,  uncreated 
Life. 


WHERE  DO    THEY  GO?  113 

% 

The  analogue  or  correspondent  of  this  great 
spiritual  truth  has  been  recently  discovered  in  the 
natural  sciences.  The  so-called  forces  of  nature 
— mechanical  motion,  chemical  affinity,  heat,  light, 
electricity,  and  magnetism — are  so  subject  to  similar 
laws,  present  such  similar  phenomena,  and  are  so 
readily  converted  into  each  other,  that  philosophers 
have  ventured  on  the  sublime  generalization,  that 
there  is  One  Fundamental  Force,  which  becomes 
heat,  light,  electricity,  motion,  or  affinity,  according 
to  its  modifications  in  the  atomic  forms  of  different 
media. 

The  grand  truth  being  recognized,  that  the  Lord 
creates  the  spiritual  world  from  moment  to  moment, 
according  to  the  quantity  and  quality  of  his  love 
and  wisdom  received  and  appropriated  by  the  spir- 
itual beings  inhabiting  it,  some  of  the  strangest 
statements  in  Swedenborg  assume  the  most  rational 
form.  His  details,  indeed,  are  only  intelligible 
from  a  knowledge  of  his  largest  facts  or  general 
principles. 

We  can  understand  now  how  heaven  is  separated 
from  hell,  and  one  part  of  heaven  from  another ; 
how  one  man  is  organically  in  heaven,  and  another 
organically  in  hell,  even  while  the  fleshly  veil. 

hides  from  both  their  spiritual  whereabouts.     Evil 

10  * 


114  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

spirits  cannot  see  or  hear  anything  in  heaven  ;  can- 
not even  breathe  its  air.  Not  because  the  Lord  ex- 
cludes them  from  it,  but  because  they  have  no  good 
and  true  elements  in  themselves  through  which 
He  can  create  a  heaven  around  them.  Angels  of 
one  heaven  cannot  pass  to  another,  except  through 
intermediate  spirits ;  because  their  different  degrees 
and  qualities  of  interior  life  produce  different  exte- 
rior conditions.  Every  man's  heaven  or  hell  is  the 
product  of  his  own  interior  love  and  thought.  His 
world  is  beautiful  or  hideous,  according  to  the  good 
or  evil  he  has  voluntarily  woven  into  his  own  na- 
ture. A  man's  final  state  is  not  determined  by  any 
decree  of  Justice,  but  simply  by  the  continued  ope- 
ration of  the  eternal  laws  of  creation. 

We  can  now  understand  the  plan  of  salvation, 
the  scheme  of  redemption,  the  road  to  heaven,  the 
way  to  be  saved. 

And  here,  what  shall  we  say  of  that  scheme  of 
redemption  which  has  been  taught  in  the  Christian 
world  since  the  foundation  of  the  church ;  the  angry 
Father,  the  interceding  Son ;  the  punishment  of 
the  innocent  for  the  guilty ;  acceptance  of  the  terms 
proposed,  and  imputation  of  righteousness  after  an 
act  of  the  understanding  alone  ?  As  no  single  ele- 
ment of  this  scheme  is  supported  by  the  record  of 


WHERE  DO    THEY  GO?  115 

the  Evangelists,  or  by  even  a  hint  from  the  Lord 
himself,  what  can  we  say,  except  to  repeat  the 
opinion  of  a  great  thinker,  that  the  dark  meta- 
physics of  Paul  has  sadly  obscured  the  beautiful 
simplicity  of  the  Gospel? 

Since  heaven  is  the  Lord's  life  in  the  human 
soul,  the  road  to  heaven,  the  way  to  be  saved,  is 
simply  to  receive  the  Lord's  life  into  the  heart. 
What  is  the  Lord's  life  ?  It  comes  to  our  under- 
standings as  the  Lord's  Will — what  He  loves  and 
wills  to  be  done.  But  if  the  Lord's  life  works  in 
us  and  through  us  perpetually,  why  is  not  his  will 
done?  Simply  because  we  react  against  it.  Let 
us  cease  to  react  against  it;  "cease  to  do  evil," 
because  He  so  commands  us;  because  evil,  or  re- 
acting against  God,  is  sin  ;  and  the  whole  work  is 
done, — at  least  all  that  we  have  to  do  or  can  do. 

This  is  the  reason  why  the  commandments  of 
the  Lord  are  almost  always  negative.  He  does  not 
command  us  to  fast,  to  pray,  to  give  alms,  to  attend 
church,  to  mortify  ourselves,  to  make  sacrifices  of 
all  sorts,  or  to  believe  any  particular  doctrine  or 
creed.  Pie  merely  commands  us  to  abstain  from 
idolatry,  from  image-worship,  from  murder,  from 
adultery,  from  theft,  from  lying,  from  covetousness, 
from  doing  our  own  work  on  the  Sabbath  day. 


116  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

There  is  a  deep  organic  reason  for  these  negative 
commands.  We  can  never  do  any  good  thing  so 
long  as  we  resist  or  react  against  the  Divine  "Will; 
and  so  soon  as  we  abstain  from  evils  of  all  kinds 
and  permit  the  Lord  to  work  in  us  and  through  us, 
get  rid  of  the  dominating  influence  of  self,  and 
open  the  door  of  the  heart  to  divine  influences,  we 
discover  that  "  there  is  none  good  but  One,  that  is, 
God  ;"  and  that  we  are  mediums  through  whom  the 
divine  goodness  works,  and  not  active  agents,  except 
in  the  mere  sense  of  co-operation. 

The  old  man  with  his  lusts  and  the  evil  heart 
of  stone  are  never  changed  into  the  new  man  and 
into  the  heart  of  flesh.  The  old  man  is  simply 
thrust  aside  or  displaced,  and  the  new  man — a 
new  creature  or  creation — installed  in  his  place. 
This  new  man  is  not  ourself,  but  the  Lord  within 
us  —  the  heaven  within.  The  highest,  brightest, 
and  purest  angel  knows  very  well,  that,  independ- 
ent of  the  Lord's  presence  within  him,  he  is  no 
better  than  the  most  utterly  irreclaimable  devil  in 
hell.  He  would  rebuke  the  imputation  of  good- 
ness as  Sir  Launcelot  did  that  of  greatness : 

"  In  me  there  dwells 
No  greatness,  save  it  be  a  far-off  touch 
Of  greatness,  to  know  well  I  am  not  great." 


WHERE  DO   THEY  GO?  117 

The  true  plan  of  salvation  consists  then  in  wash- 
ing in  the  river  Jordan  seven  times — that  simple 
process  recommended  by  Elisha  to  the  conceited 
and  angry  leper.  It  is  to  remove  evil  things  from 
our  external  man  by  refraining  from  doing  evil. 
The  Lord  does  all  the  rest.  He  enters  our  open 
doors  and  sups  with  us,  as  He  promised.  New 
life,  new  love,  new  aspirations  pour  upon  us ;  not 
ours,  but  His.  An  increased  love  of  the  Lord,  of 
the  neighbor,  of  the  Church,  of  the  Word,  of  our 
country,  of  our  friends,  of  our  business,  from  which 
the  old  foul  traces  of  self-love  or  selfishness  are 
eliminated,  is  the  sign  and  proof  of  His  presence. 

Self  is  the  obstruction  which  keeps  the  Lord  and 
heaven  out  of  our  hearts.  When  we  surrender  all 
our  evil  passions  and  false  opinions — our  pride,  our 
folly,  our  contempt  of  others,  our  ambition,  our 
prejudices,  our  restless  endeavors  to  aggrandize  our- 
selves in  some  manner ;  we  find  that  there  is  no 
goodness  or  truth  in  us,  but  that  we  have  been  re- 
duced to  the  state  of  childhood  again.  That  is  the 
meaning  involved  in  our  Lord's  words,  that  unless 
we  receive  the  kingdom  of  heaven  as  a  little  child, 
we  cannot  enter  therein. 

Children  are  interiorly  and  organically  in  heaven. 
Of  course  they  all  go  to 


UNIVERSITY 


118  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

when  the  external  veil  or  fleshly  body  drops  from 
them.  They  are  in  heaven,  because  they  have 
formed  and  confirmed  no  moral  and  intellectual 
selfhood,  but  are  open  and  piastre  to  the  influ- 
ence of  heavenly  forces.  From  birth  to  five  years, 
they  are  attended  by  celestial  angels ;  from  five  to 
twenty,  by  spiritual  angels.  These  angels  do  all 
they  can  to  break  or  modify  the  hereditary  ten- 
dency to  evil,  and  to  prevent  the  formation  of  a 
selfish  character. 

This  great  truth,  that  we  are  spiritually  born  in 
heaven  and  descend  from  it  to  earth,  losing  our 
celestial  and  then  our  spiritual  life  as  we  recede 
from  the  great  Source  of  all  life,  is  beautifully 
stated  by  one  of  the  purest  poets  of  the  world : 

"  The  Soul  that  rises  with  us,  our  life's  Star, 

Hath  had  elsewhere  its  setting, 
And  cometh  from  afar ; 

Not  in  entire  forgetfulness 

And  not  in  utter  nakedness, 
But  trailing  clouds  of  glory  do  we  come 

From  God,  who  is  our  home. 
Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy ! 
Shades  of  the  prison-house  begin  to  close 

Upon  the  growing  Boy, 
But  he  beholds  the  light  and  whence  it  flows, 

He  sees  it  in  his  joy : 


WHERE  DC    THEY  GO?  119 

The  Youth,  who  daily  farther  from  the  East 
Must  travel,  still  is  Nature's  Priest, 

And  by  the  vision  splendid 

Is  on  his  way  attended : 
At  length  the  Man  perceives  it  die  away, 
And  fade  into  the  light  of  common  day." 

Heaven,  though  so  near  to  us  in  one  sense,  is 
very  far  from  us  in  another.  Our  sins  have  so 
separated  us  from  the  pure  and  beautiful  natures 
of  those  who  live  in  heaven,  that  very  few  human 
beings  can  pass  at  once  from  this  world  into  the 
company  of  angels.  This  is  true  even  of  children, 
except  little  babes.  The  spirits  of  falsehood  and 
selfishness,  of  envy,  pride,  jealousy,  and  cruelty, 
take  early  possession  of  our  poor,  fallen  souls. 
Scarcely  a  little  one  five  or  ten  years  of  age  enters 
the  bright  portals  of  the  Morning  Land,  without 
more  or  less  of  these  spiritual  stains  upon  its  still 
undeveloped  nature.  We  cannot  pass  at  once  from 
the  dark  and  dense  medium  of  earthly  passion  and 
thought,  into  the  golden  atmospheres  of  heavenly 
affections.  These  evil  and  false  things  which  we 
imbibe,  or  which  have  unfolded  from  the  awful 
depths  of  hereditary  depravity,  how  are  they  re- 
moved ? 

The  idea  that  some  great  and  miraculous  change 
takes  place  at  death,  by  which  the  spirit  is  made 


120  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

perfectly  pure  and  holy,  and  fitted  instantaneously 
for  heaven,  has  no  foundation  in  reason  or  reve- 
lation. We  rise  from  our  natural  bodies  with  every 
affection  and  appetite,  every  thought  and  opinion, 
we  had  entertained  or  contracted  here.  We  are 
just  as  infirm  and  imperfect  and  impure  after  the 
resurrection  as  before  it.  We  find  ourselves  in  the 
world  of  spirits,  the  vast  reservoir  of  all  the  de- 
parted, a  state  and  its  corresponding  place  inter- 
mediate betweeen  heaven  and  hell. 

This  is  Hades,  the  place  of  departed  spirits ;  the 
place  into  which  our  Lord  descended  after  his  resur- 
rection, and  where  He  preached  to  the  souls  that 
were  in  prison.  This  is  the  paradise  in  which  He 
met  the  spiritual  form  of  the  penitent  thief  who 
was  crucified  with  Him  on  Calvary.  The  locality 
and  uses  of  that  world  are  most  important  elements 
in  the  spiritual  history  of  our  globe.  In  that  world 
the  souls  of  men  were  gathered  at  the  time  of  our 
Lord's  incarnation.  A  great  Judgment  took  place 
there  during  His  earthly  life.  The  good  and 
evil  were  separated;  the  old  ceremonial  system 
passed  away,  and  a  New  Dispensation  was  inaugu- 
rated. A  similar  Judgment  occurred  in  that  world 
in  1757,  and  the  germ  of  the  Lord's  Last  and 
Everlasting  Church,  the  New  Jerusalem,  was 


WHERE  DO   THEY  GOf  121 

planted  upon  earth.  No  general  Judgment  will 
ever  occur  again ;  but  each  individual  now  passes 
immediately  after  death  to  the  judgment. 

This  judgment  is  no  great  judicial  process  similar 
to  those  we  have  upon  earth,  by  which  guilt  is  de- 
tected and  punishment  decreed.  The  soul  is  freed 
from  all  external  restraints,  all  bonds  of  law,  cus- 
tom, or  authority,  which  bound  it  here ;  and  is  led 
into  such  societies  and  states,  that  its  genuine,  un- 
trammeled,  interior  nature  may  come  to  the  surface 
and  be  revealed  to  itself  and  to  all  others.  It  is 
not  punished  for  any  thing  it  has  ever  done.  Its 
punishment  comes  only  from  it-self.  It  is  per- 
mitted to  choose  its  own  life,  its  own  associates,  its 
own  place;  and  every  one  passes  into  heaven  or 
hell  of  his  own  free  choice.  He  is  attracted  hither 
or  thither  by  profound  spiritual  affinities,  and  his 
inmost  qualities  continue  to  radiate  forth  into  flow- 
ers and  fruit — beautiful  or  ghastly,  sweet  or  bitter 
— to  eternity. 

•  What  surprise,  and  in  some  cases  what  horror, 
must  strike  Christians  educated  under  the  present 
system  of  thought,  when  they  discover  a  few  days 
after  death,  that  they  are  wholly  unfit  for  the 
society  of  angels ;  and  that  a  great  work  of  spirit- 
ual exploration  and  judgment  awaits  them;  and 
11  F 


122  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

that  a  thorough  reconstruction  must  take  place  in 
their  natures  before  they  can  reach  their  happy 
homes  among  the  redeemed  ! 

They  are  permitted,  indeed,  by  the  mediation  of 
good  spirits,  to  enter  the  gates  of  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem and  to  see  the  glory  of  the  City ;  to  confirm 
their  faith,  inspire  their  hopes,  and  satisfy  a  legiti- 
mate curiosity ;  but  they  cannot  live  there  at  once ; 
and  they  are  taken  back  to  the  world  of  spirits,  to 
have  all  the  secret  evils  of  their  hearts  exposed  and 
eradicated,  and  every  false  idea  corrected  and  up- 
rooted from  their  understandings.  When  they  can 
feel  and  think  in  harmony  with  some  angelic  society, 
that  is,  in  a  spirit  of  perfect  love  and  truth,  free 
from  all  traces  of  self  or  earthly  imperfection,  they 
are  admitted  into  that  higher  and  holier  sphere, 
and  occupy  the  mansion  which  had  been  secretly 
preparing  for  them  all  the  time  by  their  heavenly 
Father. 

Men  remain  a  longer  or  shorter  time  in  the  world 
of  spirits,  according  to  the  tenacity  with  which  they 
cling  to  their  evil  affections  and  false  opinions.  It 
is  sometimes  difficult  and  painful  to  get  rid  of  these 
foul  incrustations  of  the  earthly  life.  It  takes-  a 
few  months  in  some  cases — ten,  twenty,  or  even 
thirty  years  in  others;  but  the  good  spirits  and 


WHERE  DO    THEY  GO?  123 

angels  who  labor  to  enlighten  and  purify  our  souls 
are  blessed  with  infinite  patience  and  sweetness  of 
temper.  Simple,  uneducated  persons  and  heathen, 
being  more  like  little  children,  are  taught  and  led 
much  more  easily  than  the  learned  and  gifted,  who 
have  less  real  humility,  more  pride  of  opinion  and 
self-reliance,  and  who  have  confirmed  themselves 
by  subtle  reasonings  in  their  mental  states. 

Is  it  not  eminently  rational  that  our  spiritual 
character  should  be  developed  by  these  gradual 
changes?  The  proud,  the  covetous,  the  sensual, 
become  humble  and  liberal  and  spiritual,  not  by 
any  immediate  grace  of  God,  but  by  steady  organic 
changes  in  the  spiritual  substance  of  their  own 
souls.  The  evil  and  false  things  in  us  are  as  real 
as  our  flesh  and  blood  ;  and  they  are  removed,  and 
good  and  true  things  take  their  places,  just  as  the 
old  material  of  our  bodies  is  slowly  eliminated  and 
quietly  replaced  by  new  tissues  and  organs.  A 
great  deal  of  this  work  of  regeneration  is  some- 
times effected  here,  and  the  rest  is  completed  in 
the  world  of  spirits.  If  it  be  begun  here  at  all — 
so  much  as  the  planting  of  a  grain  of  mustard- 
seed — it  will  surely  be  perfected  hereafter. 

Children  under  twenty,  and  a  great  many  adults 
among  the  heathen,  not  having  had  the  rational 


124  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

faculty  fully  developed,  have  not  confirmed  them- 
selves irremediably  in  evils  and  falsities.  On  the 
separation  of  evil  spheres  from  them,  the  angelic 
presences  within  them  pour  down  and  outwards 
into  life  and  action.  The  poor,  little  creatures,  who 
were  born  and  reared  in  the  hot-beds  of  vice  and 
crime  in  our  great  cities,  are  brought  under  the 
sweetest  influences  of  education  and  culture.  They 
are  trained  by  good  spirits  until  the  filth  and  dirt 
of  their  natural  life  are  washed  away,  and  the  spir- 
itual diamonds  concealed  within  begin  to  shine 
forth  to  the  sight.  Truly  the  sweet  labors  of  phi- 
lanthropy and  charity  are  not  terminated  with  our 
mortal  career !  What  idea  of  heaven  can  he  have, 
who  has  not  already  discovered  and  felt  upon  earth 
that  it  is  heaven  to  do  good  to  others  ! 

Some  children  go  to  lower  heavens;  some  to 
higher;  some  to  very  external  societies;  some  to 
very  interior ;  all  according  to  their  innate  quali- 
ties and  capacities.  Each  is  sent  to  the  precise 
point  where  his  spiritual  cultivation  can  be  best 
effected.  After  they  have  passed  from  one  sphere 
to  a  higher,  if  any  thing  false  or  evil  crops  out  in 
the  life,  they  are  remanded  back ;  nor  can  they  ad- 
vance again,  until  the  evil  has  been  thoroughly  ex- 
plored, confessed,  repented  of,  and  thus  removed. 


WHERE  DO    THEY  GO?  125 

They  are  sometimes  even  let  down  from  heaven 
into  the  world  of  spirits  for  further  purification. 

Little  babes,  having  experienced  nothing  but  a 
faint  auroral  trace  of  earthly  existence,  are  con- 
veyed at  once  to  a  certain,  highest,  inmost,  and  al- 
together indescribable  and  inconceivable  infantile 
heaven,  nearest  to  the  Lord,  and  most  immediately 
under  his  inspection.  When  they  grow  up  to  child- 
hood, they  pass  down  into  the  particular  sphere  or 
heaven, — celestial,  spiritual,  or  natural, — for  which 
they  are  organically  fitted.  They  never  have  any 
conception  of  earthly  things ;  have  no  ideas  derived 
from  time  and  space ;  think  they  were  born  in 
heaven ;  know  no  other  Father  but  the  Lord  :  and 
these  are  they  whose  spheres  of  innocence  and 
peace  are  so  powerful,  that  their  mere  presence  can 
torment  and  disperse  whole  legions  of  evil  spirits. 

In  the  celestial  light  of  these  interesting  revela- 
tions, may  we  not  exclaim  with  the  Apostle: 

"  O  Death  !   where  is  thy  sting  ? 

O  Grave !   where  is  thy  victory  ?" 
11  * 


CHAPTER  V. 

WHO   TAKES   CARE   OF   THEM? 

WHAT  confidence  in  the  definiteness  and  fidel- 
ity of  Swedenborg's  revelations  of  the  other 
life  must  they  have,  who  seriously  undertake  to  tell 
us  something  about  those  angels  who  receive  and 
take  care  of  our  little  ones  when  they  die !  Most 
people  have  so  vague  an  idea  of  the  other  life,  so 
little  conception  of  its  reality  and  substantiality, 
that  they  are  quite  surprised  when  told  that  the 
spiritual  body  of  a  little  child  just  raised  up  into 
heaven,  requires  as  much  attention  as  its  natural 
body  did  here.  It  must  be  fed  and  clothed;  it 
must  sleep ;  it  must  be  trained  to  walk  and  talk. 
The  little  spirit  must  be  instructed.  A  world  of 
knowledge  must  be  presented  to  it;  a  world  of  love 
must  be  lavished  upon  it.  Who  will  discharge 
these  tender  duties? 

Every  child  after  its  resurrection  is  consigned  to 
the  care  of  a  female  angel,  whose  ruling  passion  is 
the  love  of  children ;  who  feels  more  than  the 

126 


WHO    TAKES  CARE   OF   THEM?  127 

affection  of  any  mortal  mother  for  it ;  and  whose 
supreme  delight  will  be  to  make  her  little  charge 
both  wise  and  happy.  There  is  no  love,  the  mind 
incredulously  retorts — there  is  no  love  like  that  of 
a  mother,  sweeter  than  life,  stronger  than  death. 
Those  who  judge  of  our  loves  after  death  by  their 
feeble  manifestations  before  it,  have  formed  no  ade- 
quate conception  of  the  beautiful  expansion  of  heart 
and  mind  which  awaits  us  all  hereafter.  If  we 
shall  then  think  with  a  brightness  and  rapidity 
now  inconceivable,  shall  not  our  love,  the  first  and 
deepest  expression  of  our  life,  undergo  also  a  pro- 
portionate increase? 

Some  uninstructed  minds  will  revolt,  also,  at  the 
idea  of  male  and  female  angels.  As  if  the  grand 
distinction  of  sex  could  be  obliterated  by  death  ! — 
a  distinction  which  is  universal,  beginning  with 
the  Love  and  Wisdom  of  God,  and  running 
through  heaven  and  earth,  varying  its  forms  but 
never  its  principles ;  through  men  and  beasts  and 
flowers,  down  to  the  married  poles  of  every  mineral 
atom !  As  if  the  grace,  the  beauty,  the  purity,  the 
splendor  of  woman  would  not  constitute  the  social 
charm  and  glory  of  heaven,  as  it  does  of  earth  ! 
As  if  the  passionate  longing  of  youthful  loves, 
each  for  the  other,  was  not  the  golden  dawn,  the 


128  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

token,  the  prophecy,  of  sweet  eternities  of  wedded 
bliss ! 

Swedenborg  has  satisfied  the  man  of  science,  who 
seeks  a  key  to  the  essential  unity  of  form  and  func- 
tion in  the  myriad-fold  variations  of  shape  and 
property  in  outward  things.  He  satisfies  the  phil- 
osopher, who  requires  the  true  relation  between 
cause  and  effect;  and  those  great,  pivotal,  univer- 
sal truths,  around  which  all  lesser  truths  revolve, 
like  planets  about  the  sun.  He  satisfies  the  theo- 
logian, who  wishes  to  know  how  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
Supreme  God ;  and  how  His  love  and  wisdom  are 
the  heat  and  light  which  vibrate  through  the  spir- 
itual ethers  of  the  religious  world.  Does  he  satisfy 
the  aesthetic  soul,  which  longs  to  unveil  the  prin- 
ciples of  Beauty,  and  to  read  the  poetry  of  heaven 
in  the  stars,  and  in  the  flowers  of  earth?  Only  in 
part.  Does  he  satisfy  the  frantic  questionings  of 
the  inconsolable  mother,  bereaved  of  her  child  ? 
Alas,  no ! 

Had  some  noble  mother,  purified  of  earthly 
dross  until  her  heart  pulsated  in  unison  with  the 
golden  ethers  of  some  infantile  heaven,  been  per- 
mitted to  penetrate,  as  he  did,  the  "far-folded 
mists  and  gleaming  halls  of  morn,"  and,  searching 
for  her  children,  to  gaze  on  the  wonders  and  glories 


WHO   TAKES  CARE  OF  THEM?  129 

of  the  Celestial  Kingdom,  she  would  have  told  u^ 
things  which  would  have  filled  the  aching  and 
hungry  heart  of  maternity  for  ever ! 

Ah !  But  is  the  maternal  heart  of  the  present 
Christian  world  ready  or  worthy  to  receive  such  a 
revelation  as  that?  If  we  have  been  faithless  in 
our  stewardship  of  a  few  things,  how  can  we  expect 
the  Good  Master  to  entrust  his  greatest  treasures  to 
our  keeping? 

Swedenborg,  a  wifeless  and  childless  old  man, 
was  busied  with  the  momentous  mission  of  embo- 
dying in  philosophic  forms  the  spiritual  doctrines 
of  a  New  Church ;  not  to  be  erected  by  himself 
among  the  institutions  of  men,  but  to  be  estab- 
lished by  the  Lord  in  the  heart  of  the  world. 
Teaching  universal  truths  or  general  principles  in 
bold,  clear  outlines  of  geometric  beauty,  he  is  fre- 
quently deficient  in  that  minuteness  and  richness 
of  detail,  which  we  fancy  would  have  added  so 
much  to  the  value  and  force  of  his  revelations. 

In  the  evolution  of  human  literature,  the  poet 
comes  first  with  his  songs,  preceding  the  philoso- 
pher with  his  problems,  and  the  naturalist  with  his 
facts.  In  the  opening  of  the  heavens  it  will  be 
different.  A  scientific  and  philosophic  basis  will 

be  firmly  laid,  leaving   little   room   for   fancy  or 
F  » 


130  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

speculation.  In  the  far  futures,  the  Seers  and  the 
Seeresses  of  spiritual  and  celestial  generations,  may 
uplift  veil  after  veil  from  still  more  interior  hea- 
vens, and  overwhelm  us  with  their  music  and  song. 

Very  much,  however,  that  is  both  beautiful  and 
consoling  may  be  gleaned  from  Swedenborg  in 
answer  to  the  query  we  have  propounded.  We 
cannot  learn  the  name  of  the  good  angel  who  has 
taken  charge  of  our  little  ones.  The  new  name 
written  on  the  white  stone,  which  she  received  from 
the  Lord,  is  incommunicable  to  man.  It  involves 
her  whole  spiritual  character,  and  that  would  be 
incomprehensible  to  us.  Still,  a  little  cheering 
approximation  can  be  made  towards  a  knowledge 
of  its  outlines.  Even  that  will  give  us  such  a 
deep,  sweet  confidence  in  her  supernal  goodness 
and  love!  Preparing  the  way,  we  must  explain 
first  the  true  nature  of  the  sphere  of  infants  and 
little  children,  and  the  difference  between  the  natu- 
ral and  the  spiritual  love  of  them. 

The  sphere  of  little  children!  What  is  a 
Sphere  ? 

Every  mineral,  every  flower,  every  animal,  every 
human  being,  every  spirit,  every  object,  indeed,  in 
the  universe,  from  the  sun  to  a  dew-drop,  has  a 
peculiar  atmosphere,  composed  of  infinitesimal  par- 


WHO   TAKES  CARE  OF  THEM?  131 

tides  emanating  from  itself,  embodying  its  interior 
nature  and  proceeding  to  a  certain  distance  around 
it.  We  find  it  in  the  magnet,  by  its  attraction  ;  in 
the  rose  by  its  perfume ;  in  man  by  his  radiating 
influences  of  all  kinds.  By  it  the  faithful  dog 
tracks  his  master  to  incredible  distances.  By  it  the 
magnetized  person  detects  the  character  of  another 
by  the  glove  or  the  ring  he  has  worn.  Every 
social  circle,  every  church,  every  institution,  has  its 
sphere.  The  sphere  of  the  sun  is  the  creative 
force  of  nature.  The  sphere  of  the  Lord  is  the 
Holy  Spirit,  which  comes  from  or  is  "given" 
by  the  glorified  and  ascended  Person  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  secret  of  our  sympathies  and  antipathies 
lies  in  the  nature  of  the  spiritual  spheres  emanating 
from  us.  They  are  the  antenna?  of  the  soul,  which 
we  throw  out  around  us  to  feel  each  other.  Simi- 
lar spheres  attract ;  dissimilar  spheres  repel.  Men 
and  women,  according  to  the  goodness  and  truth  in 
them,  or  their  opposites,  radiate  forth  upon  others 
spiritual  spheres  pregnant  with  good  or  evil  issues. 
The  floral  breath  of  vernal  meadows  and  the  reek- 
ing malaria  of  sultry  swamps,  are  not  more  substan- 
tial than  the  spiritual  spheres  of  men  and  women. 

Imagine,   then,  the  spiritual   sphere   emanating 


132  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

from  an  infant !  There  is  a  brilliant  halo  about 
every  little  child.  Happy  is  the  man  who  can  see 
and  feel  and  love  it !  The  old  artists  meant  to  por- 
tray it  by  the  golden  circle  about  the  head  of  the 
infant  Jesus.  It  conies  forth  in  the  serene  light 
and  beauty,  the  inexpressible  repose,  the  innocent 
gladness,  and  the  heavenly  sweetness  of  the  infantile 
face.  It  is  discerned  in  the  tender  cooings  and 
prattlings  and  merry  laughter  of  their  little  voices ; 
in  their  perfect  forms,  and  in  the  delicacy  and 
unconscious  grace  of  every  gesture  and  motion. 
Could  we  see  and  feel  the  full  significance  of  this 
interior  and  exterior  of  infantile  life,  the  hidden 
soul  and  its  beautiful  halo,  every  little  babe  leap- 
ing in  its  nurse's  arms,  or  smiling  in  its  cradle, 
would  be  as  wonderful  to  us  as  an  angel  standing 
in  the  sun ! 

The  causes  of  this  infantile  sphere  are  the  states 
of  innocence  and  peace  in  which  their  spirits  exist 
— the  total  unconsciousness  of  sin  or  wrong,  and 
the  heavenly  calm  that  flows  from  a  perfect  state  of 
moral  order  and  beauty.  This  innocence,  and  its 
consequent  peace,  is  the  Lord's  inmost  life  in  the 
soul.  The  more  innocence  and  peace,  the  nearer  to 
the  Lord.  Celestial  angels — those  nearest  the  Lord 
— are  always  present  with  infants  and  young  chil- 


WHO   TAKES  CARE  OF  THEM?  133 

dren.  It  is  the  communication  of  their  celestial 
sphere  which  gives  to  infancy  its  ineffable  beauty 
and  charm.  The  many-colored  splendors  of  our 
little  dew-drops  on  the  earth  are  reflected  from 
heavenly  rainbows  that  are  shining  beyond  and 
above  them. 

In  the  inmost  or  central,  part  of  every  man's 
spirit  there  is  a  receptacle  of  the  Lord's  life.  From 
that  receptacle  the  life  flows  down  into  the  organic 
structures  of  the  soul,  and  becomes  affection  and 
thought,  and  finally  action,  according  to  the  free 
determination  of  the  spirit  itself.  Our  selfhood 
reacts  against  that  inflowing  divine  life.  Accord- 
ing to  the  force  of  this  reaction  we  receive  and  ex- 
hibit much  or  little  of  the  Lord's  life  in  us.  We 
may  so  shut  it  out  that  our  life  may  be  as  unspir- 
itual  as  that  of  the  beasts.  We  may  receive  it  so 
fully  and  freely  as  to  be  perfect  in  our  finite  sphere, 
as  our  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect. 

The  little  child  in  whom  no  evil  passions  have 
been  awakened,  no  false  opinions  formed,  receives 
this  life  of  the  Lord  without  obstruction ;  and  it 
shines  through  him,  radiating  outwards  into  the 
beautiful  sphere  of  infancy.  States  of  goodness 
and  truth,  inconceivable  to  our  natural  thoughts, 

are  stored  away  in  the  minds  of  children.     These 
12 


134  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

are  the  basis  of  conscience,  and  the  fountain  and 
treasury  whence  all  the  virtues  and  graces  flow  out 
into  action.  They  may  be  sadly  wasted  by  con- 
tinued perversion ;  they  may  be  sealed  and  shut 
up,  like  magic  caverns  containing  fabulous  riches, 
the  secret  of  whose  entrance  has  been  lost  to  man  ; 
but  they  can  never,  be  destroyed.  There  will 
always  be  a  "remnant,"  the  germ  of  a  better 
nature,  a  chord  which  may  be  touched,  a  love 
which  may  be  kindled  ; 

"  The  bond  which  links  us  to  the  angels  most, 
The  Light  which  may  be  hidden,  but  never  can  be  lost." 

The  sphere  of  infancy  is,  then,  a  veritable  She- 
kinah — an  outward  manifestation  of  the  invisible 
glory  of  the  Lord.  The  approach  to  the  Lord  is  a 
strange  way ;  not  much  known  or  thought  of  by 
the  majority  of  people.  It  is  not  the  aisles  of  gor- 
geous churches,  trembling  to  solemn  music  and 
leading  to  gilded  altars  smoking  with  fragrant 
incense  and  glittering  with  lights  and  flowers.  It 
is  not  the  radiant  avenue  of  the  visible  heavens, 
paved  with  stars,  conducting  to  the  ineffable  splen- 
dors of  a  Central  Sun.  It  is  no  spiritual  highway, 
traversed  by  the  strong-winged  powers  of  the  intel- 
lect, or  by  the  swift-footed  affections  of  the  soul. 


WHO   TAKES  CARE  OF   THEM?  135 

By  no  such  ways  can  the  Heavenly  Father  be  ap- 
proached. Who,  by  searching,  can  find  out  God  ? 

No :  The  way  to  the  Lord  is  nearer  and  simpler. 
Progress  is  made  in  it,  not  by  prayers  and  fastings 
and  almsgivings  and  ecstatic  contemplations,  but 
by  merely  ceasing  to  do  evil ;  by  putting  away  our 
lusts  and  falsities;  by  divesting  ourselves  of  our 
selfish  aims,  our  pride,  our  ambition,  our  self-reli- 
ance, our  incredulities, — of  almost  everything  which 
constitutes  our  boasted  manhood ;  by  getting 
emptied  of  self,  and  returning  back,  in  some  de- 
gree, into  those  states  of  innocence  and  peace  which 
characterize  the  heart  of  childhood. 

From  this  stand-point  we  can  see  the  crystalline 
truth  and  beauty  of  the  Lord's  words :  "  Whosoever 
shall  receive  one  of  such  children  in  my  name,  re- 
ceiveth  me."  And  again :  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you, 
whosoever  shall  not  receive  the  kingdom  of  God  as 
a  little  child,  he  shall  not  enter  therein." 

In  that  Celestial  Kingdom,  whence  infancy  de- 
rives its  precious  life,  our  Lord  reigns ;  not  as  the 
King  of  Israel,  or  as  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of 
Judah,  but  with  the  far  more  beautiful  and  en- 
dearing titles  of  the  Lamb  and  the  Prince  of 
Peace.  Qualities  in  the  other  life  are  frequently 
sensed  as  odors.  Swedenborg  perceived  the  sphere 


136  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

from  the  heavens  of  little  children,  as  one  might 
perceive  the  overpowering  perfume  of  a  grove  of 
magnolias.  He  describes  this  sphere  as  making 
him  feel  "as  if  he  were  unable  to  contain  himself, 
being  seized  and  transported  with  such  delight, 
that  every  delight  belonging  to  this  world  appeared 
as  nothing  in  comparison/' 

Not  only  is  the  Lord  more  intimately  present  in 
this  infantile  sphere  than  elsewhere,  but  this  sphere 
is  more  powerful  than  all  others.  This  is  a  paradox 
to  those  who  expect  to  find  the  Lord  in  the  whirl- 
wind and  the  fire,  rather  than  in  the  "  still,  small 
voice."  Some  one  has  said  that  a  babe  is  the 
weakest  and  strongest  of  all  things.  Few  have 
realized  the  fact,  that  all  power,  like  life  and  love, 
is  the  Lord's  alone.  Therefore  the  sphere  of  Inno- 
cence, in  which  the  Lord  is  most  intimately  pres- 
ent, is  the  sphere  and  seat  of  his  highest  power. 
From  its  serene  height  He  governs  all  inferior 
things.  Hence  his  government  is  perpetually  one 
of  Love. 

No  evil  spirit  can  approach  the  sphere  of  inno- 
cence in  which  infants  live,  without  suffering  ter- 
rible tortures.  An  infant  can  put  millions  of  devils 
to  flight;  and  his  continued  presence  in  the  infernal 
world  would  break  up  the  foundations  of  its  society 


WHO   TAKES  CARE   OF   THEM?  137 

and  reduce  it  to  a  chaos  of  pain  and  madness.  It 
was  this  sphere  of  innocence,  flowing  from  the 
person  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  made  the  devils  cry 
out:  "Art  thou  come  hither  to  torment  us?"  "We 
know  thee,  who  thou  art,  the  Holy  One  of  God !" 

Hence  the  truth  of  Swedenborg's  strange  asser- 
tion, that  evil  spirits  bear  a  special  hatred  towards 
infants  and  little  children.  They  rave  and  rage  at 
sight  of  them,  like  wild  beasts  in  iron  cages,  burn- 
ing yet  impotent  to  seize  and  destroy.  It  is  be- 
cause they  sense  with  frightful  keenness  the  sphere 
of  the  Lord's  innocence  and  peace  emanating  from 
them.  The  sphere  of  love,  impinging  upon  the  life- 
sphere  of  an  evil  one,  produces  hatred ;  the  sphere 
of  peace  produces  trouble ;  the  sphere  of  joy  pro- 
duces pain.  Thus  evil  becomes  its  own  punish- 
ment. 

Well  may  we  shudder  when  we  hear  a  man  or 
a  woman,  and  especially  a  woman,  say  thought- 
lessly, "  I  hate  children !"  The  least  cultivated 
mind  instinctively  recoils  from  the  thought  as  at 
the  presence  of  something  singularly  unlovely. 
Where  such  a  sentiment  is  real,  which  is  not  often 
the  case,  what  is  the  cause  of  it?  It  is  either  some 
direful,  perhaps  hidden,  evil  of  their  own  hearts 
taking  verbal  and  symbolic  expression ;  or  it  is 

12* 


138  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

some  subtle,  besieging,  possessing  devil  who  is 
speaking  through  them. 

One  of  Swedenborg's  clearest  cut  gems  of  truth 
is  this :  "  The  heavens  love  those  who  love  chil- 
dren." 

There  is  another  beautiful  statement  made  by 
him  about  the  infantile  sphere,  which  seems  incred- 
ible at  first  sight,  but  is  a  necessary  corollary  from 
the  facts  he  had  already  announced.  Angels  and 
good  spirits,  he  says,  perceive  more  intelligence 
and  wisdom,  more  spiritual  light,  in  the  minds  of 
very  young  children,  when  they  read  or  repeat- 
passages  of  the  Holy  Bible,  or  when  they  are  say- 
ing the  Lord's  Prayer,  than  they  do  in  the  minds 
of  adults.  The  children  are  themselves  wholly  un- 
conscious of  this  great  light  in  their  interior  minds. 
When  angels  gaze  down  into  the  mental  operations 
of  a  Newton,  a  Byron,  a  Bonaparte,  in  their  mo- 
ments of  profoundest  reflection  and  study,  they  dis- 
cover little  else  but  flying  clouds  and  darkness ; 
but  in  the  simple  spirit  of  a  small  child,  some  little 
Charley  conning  his  Sunday-school  lesson,  or  some 
little  Mary  caressing  her  doll,  they  see  the  auroral 
lights,  the  glittering  rainbows,  and  the  diamond 
atmospheres  which  betoken  the  proximity  of  the 
Truth  itself. 


WHO    TAKES  CARE   OF   THEM?  139 

Why  is  this  ?  The  adult  mind,  by  busying  itself 
earnestly  with  the  gross  things  of  nature,  by  the 
cares  and  troubles  of  the  world,  by  the  indulgence 
of  selfish  and  degrading  passions  and  of  groveling 
or  ambitious  thoughts,  surrounds  itself  gradually 
with  a  dense  sphere  of  selfhood,  which  repels  the 
light  of  heaven.  But  in  the  beautiful  Eden  of  the 
little  child's  heart,  where  no  serpent  has  yet  en- 
tered to  persuade  him  that  knowledge  will  make 
him  equal  to  God:  the  innocence  and  peace  of 
heaven  abide ;  the  glory  and  light  of  the  eternal 
wisdom  is  shining;  and  the  voice  of  Jehovah  is 
heard  in  the  garden. 

This  divine  sphere  of  the  love  of  children,  which 
is  derived  from  the  Lord's  love  of  protecting  and 
perpetuating  everything  He  has  created,  flowing 
down  into  our  souls,  becomes  the  spiritual  love  of 
children  in  our  interior  nature,  and  the  natural 
love  of  children  in  our  external  life.  It  is  vastly 
important  to  understand  the  connection  and  the 
difference  between  these  two  loves ;  and  to  under- 
stand that  the  natural  love  of  children,  divorced 
from  its  spiritual  life  and  soul,  is  nothing  more  than 
the  affection  of  animals  for  their  young.  Unless 
we  know  this,  we  can  get  no  true  conception  of  the 
inexpressible  beauty  and  goodness  of  those  heavenly 


HO  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

Shepherdesses,  to  whose  care  the  Great  Shepherd 
has  assigned  the  little  lambs  which  were  taken 
from  our  folds. 

Animals  which  have  no  spiritual  nature,  exhibit 
a  love  for  their  offspring  as  strongly  as  man,  so 
long  as  their  youth  or  helplessness  demands  the 
parental  care.  After  that  period,  their  parental 
love  having  no  spiritual  vitality,  utterly  perishes. 
The  more  cruel  and  fierce  the  animal,  the  more 
powerful  and  even  terrible  is  its  instinct  for  de- 
fending its  young.  The  wolf,  the  bear,  the  tigress, 
manifest  an  intensity  of  maternal  devotion  which 
we  do  not  see  in  our  domestic  creatures,  because 
the  will  of  the  latter  has  been  measurably  subdued 
by  their  subjugation  to  man.  The  love  of  the 
animal  for  its  young  is  purely  selfish  and  temporary, 
and  seems  automatic  rather  than  voluntary. 

This  selfish  and  merely  natural  love  of  children, 
divested  of  the  spiritual  element  which  enlarges 
and  sanctifies  it,  is  retained  moreover  by  the  devils 
in  hell.  Swedenborg  tells  of  an  evil  spirit  who 
was  in  a  frenzy  of  impotent  hate  at  the  sight  of  a 
beautiful  infant.  He  was  told  by  some  malicious 
spirit,  and  made  to  believe,  that  it  was  his  own 
child.  His  animosity  subsided  in  a  moment,  and 
he  sprang  forward  to  clasp  it  with  an  expression 


WHO   TAKES  CARE   OF  THEM?  141 

of  the  greatest  tenderness.  This  touching  scene 
was  witnessed  by  the  great  Seer,  that  we  might  be 
duly  impressed  with  the  difference  between  a  spir- 
itual or  heavenly  and  a  natural  or  external  love  of 
children.  The  latter  emotion,  with  all  its  appa- 
rent sweetness  and  gentleness,  is  capable  of  exist- 
ing even  in  hell ! 

Many,  perhaps  most,  earthly  parents  have  only 
the  natural  love  of  their  children.  It  is  an  exten- 
sion of  self-love.  They  love  their  own  beauty, 
intellect,  family,  wealth,  dignity,  &c.,  in  their 
children.  They  are  proud  of  them  as  part  of  them- 
selves. They  are  jealous  of  their  growth ;  jealous 
of  their  love  of  others;  and  jealous  of  their  depart- 
ure from  the  parental  influence  and  control.  They 
esteem  them  for  their  brilliant  accomplishments, 
their  social  fascinations,  and  their  talent  for  acquir- 
ing money,  position,  and  power.  Purity  of  thought, 
charity  of  soul,  sweetness  of  temper,  the  love  of 
useful  labor — those  priceless  crown-jewels  of  the 
spiritual  life — have  not  been  the  burden  of  their 
parental  prayers  and  aspirations. 

There  is  a  false  spiritual  love  of  children  which 
frequently  wears  the  livery  of  the  true.  Thinking 
about  spiritual  things,  and  thinking  in  a  spiritual 
manner,  may  be  two  very  different  states  of  the 


142  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

thinking  faculty.  Many  Christians  think  in  the 
most  grossly  natural  and  even  sensuous  manner  of 
the  Trinity,  the  Atonement,  the  Resurrection,  the 
Judgment,  Regeneration,  and,  indeed,  of  almost  all 
the  great  spiritual  verities  of  our  holy  religion. 
So,  also,  interest  in  a  child's  spiritual  welfare,  a 
zealous  concern  for  its  manners,  its  morals,  and  its 
final  salvation,  may  exist  without  any  genuine  spir- 
itual love  of  the  child.  This  seeming  paradox  can 
be  made  plain. 

Not  long  ago,  in  the  heart  of  the  freest  and  most 
Christian  country  in  the  world,  a  minister  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  whipped  his  own  little  child,  for 
disobedient  conduct,  even  to  the  awful  extremity  of 
death !  Imagine  a  father  bending  over  his  own 
helpless,  innocent  little  son,  beating  and  beating,  in 
violent  passion,  his  head,  his  hands,  his  body,  until 
with  fright  and  pain  the  little  mind  becomes  con- 
fused and  delirious ;  he  knows  not  what  the  father 
wants ;  hears  not 'what  he  says ;  but  suffers — suffers 
under  the  brutal  blows,  until  nature  gives  way,  and 
some  weeping  angel  presses  to  her  consoling  bosom 
the  little  victim  of  the  most  horrible  tragedy  of 
modern  times ! 

This  extreme  case,  which  is  almost  too  hideous  to 
contemplate,  is  typical.  It  is  representative  of 


WHO    TAKES  CARE   OF   THEM?  143 

much  of  the  so-called  spirituality  of  the  age.  This 
father  excuses  himself  on  the  plea,  that  his  intense 
affection  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his  child  led 
him  unawares  to  the  adoption  of  such  extreme 
measures.  Children  must  be  taught  obedience  to 
parents — by  kindness,  if  possible — by  force,  if 
necessary.  Obedience,  however,  is  the  great  spir- 
itual necessity,  and  it  must  be  secured  at  any  price 
and  at  all  hazards. 

This  dreadful  fallacy  pervades  the  reasonings  of 
such  people  on  many  other  subjects.  The  same 
anxiety  for  the  supposed  spiritual  welfare  of  the 
church,  the  country,  the  neighbor,  the  family,  is 
the  cause  of  great  trouble  and  sin  in  the  world. 
It  is  frequently  a  subtle  and  diabolical  form  of 
selfishness — a  lust  of  spiritual  dominion  over  the 
minds  of  men.  One  may  love  himself  supremely, 
in  his  opinions,  in  his  patriotism,  in  his  religion,  in 
his  family  management,  as  well  as  in  his  business 
and  his  money.  When  one  thinks  that  what  he 
believes  and  does  is  altogether  right,  entertaining 
contempt  for  the  opinions  and  conduct  of  others ; 
that  it  his  duty  to  enforce  his  principles  and  prac- 
tice upon  them  in  spite  of  their  will ;  and  that  the 
end  in  view  justifies  the  means  used  to  attain  it, 
let  him  beware !  There  is  no  true  spirituality  in 


144  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

his  interior  life;  no  true  Christianity  in  his  conduct. 
He  bears  in  his  heart  the  secret  germs  of  all  hatred, 
vindictiveness,  cruelty,  and  murder. 

This  was  once  illustrated  to  Swedenborg  by  one 
of  those  curious  symbolic  visions  which  he  found 
so  pregnant  with  spiritual  truth.  He  was  infested 
all  night  by  cruel  and  wicked  spirits.  He  saw 
some  parents  combing  the  heads  of  their  children 
with  terrible  saws,  and  lacerating  their  backs  until 
they  were  covered  with  blood.  The  parents  ap- 
peared simply  eager  to  reform  the  manners  and 
morals  of  the  children.  That  picture  represented 
the  external  or  visible  field  of  life.  Then  appeared 
a  huge  serpent  coiled  around  a  tree — his  size  was 
such  as  to  inspire  intense  horror — representing  their 
intellectual  life,  or  the  faith  from  which  such  con- 
duct flowed.  A  third  scene — some  women  carry- 
ing blackened  pieces  of  human  flesh  towards  a 
kitchen — symbolized  the  secret  animus,  the  emo- 
tional life  of  such  people. 

He  conjectured  at  first  that  these  things  were  de- 
signed to  represent  the  interior  character  of  the 
cannibal  tribes  :  but  he  was  instructed  that  the  les- 
son came  nearer  home  to  Christendom.  It  taught 
the  interior  character  of  those  who  are  strong  and 
bitter  in  faith,  without  the  charity  or  neighborly 


WHO   TAKES  CARE   OF  THEM?  145 

love  which  is  always  the  life  and  soul  of  a  true 
faith.  Such  was  the  prevailing  genius  of  his  own 
age,  and  such  predominates,  also,  in  this — a  little 
touched  and  softened  by  the  approaching  but  unac- 
knowledged light  of  a  New  Dispensation. 

Swedenborg  tells  us,  also,  in  this  connection,  that 
the  least  feeling  of  contempt  or  ill-will  towards  the 
neighbor  contains  hidden  in  its  bosom  such  insen- 
sate hatred,  as  would  impel  one  to  feed  voraciously 
on  the  blackened  flesh  of  his  enemy.  This  fearful 
analysis  of  the  human  heart  is  applicable  to  us  all ; 
for  has  not  the  weeping  Prophet  told  us,  that  the 
human  heart  is  "  deceitful  above  all  things,  and 
desperately  wicked?"  When  we  would  justify 
ourselves  in  conduct  which  violates  the  great  law 
of  mutual  love,  let  us  not  be  deceived  ;  let  us  trace 
the  real  motive  power  up  through  the  false  reason- 
ings of  the  intellect  to  the  uncontrolled  perversions 
of  our  moral  nature. 

What  distrust,  what  fear,  what  pain,  we  should 
experience  if  we  thought  our  little  ones,  gone  from 
us,  but  not  lost,  were  entrusted  to  the  keeping  of 
spirits  or  angels  trained  in  our  modern  schools  of 
thought !  How  enchanting  the  reflection,  that  their 
heavenly  guardians  have  wrought  into  their  own 
beautiful  lives  the  sweet  lessons  of  the  great  Mas- 

13  G 


146  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

ter,  who  blessed  the  little  children  upon  earth,  and 
who  draws  them  into  heaven;  who  taught  us  to 
forgive  our  enemy — not  seven  times  only,  but 
seventy  times  seven  ;  whose  thoughts  are  perfect 
peace,  and  whose  laws  are  perfect  love ! 

How  then  shall  we  distinguish  the  genuine  spir- 
itual love  from  the  spurious  ? 

Genuine  spiritual  love,  beautifully  described  by 
the  Apostle  Paul  under  the  name  of  charity,  is  in- 
variably sweet  and  tender  and  gentle.  It  springs 
from  innocence,  meekness,  and  humility.  It  gives 
birth  to  patience,  forbearance,  forgiveness,  and  pity. 
It  is  the  spirit  of  Christ  and  the  test  of  Chris- 
tianity. Whenever  any  thing  austere,  impatient, 
accusing,  violent,  or  angry  enters  into  our  feelings 
and  conduct,  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves.  We  are 
the  sport  of  devils.  God's  inflowing  love  has  been 
perverted  into  hate.  Our  piety  and  philanthropy 
have  the  mark  of  the  beast.  Let  us  never  forget 
that  abstract  truth  or  justice,  separate  and  divorced 
in  the  human  mind  from  the  spirit  of  charity  and 
mercy,  is  shorn  of  its  divine  and  heavenly  beauty, 
and  becomes  the  minister  of  oppression  and  wrong. 

We  can  now  see  more  clearly  what  is  meant  by 
the  spiritual  love  of  little  children.  It  is  the  love 
of  childhood  itself;  a  strong  spiritual  affinity  for 


WHO   TAKES  CARE   OF   THEM?  147 

those  heavenly  states  of  innocence  and  peace  which 
flow  into  the  heart  of  children  from  the  Lord. 
Interiorly  it  is  the  love  of  the  Lord  Himself  as 
the  supreme  Source  of  all  goodness  and  truth ;  of 
all  innocence,  all  beauty,  all  peace. 

This  explains  that  curious  statement  of  Sweden- 
borg,  repeated  in  several  places,  that  the  presence 
or  sphere  of  an  infant  in  the  spiritual  world  is  a 
sure  test  of  the  inmost  quality  of  those  who  come 
within  range  of  its  power.  He  tells  of  a  certain 
spirit  who  appeared  to  be  an  excellent  Christian. 
He  seemed  kind  and  gentle  and  generous  and 
humble.  For  a  long  time  no  evil  could  be  de- 
tected in  his  character.  When  he  was  confronted, 
however,  with  a  very  beautiful  infant,  his  secret 
animosity  to  the  infantile  sphere  of  innocence  from 
the  Lord  was  plainly  revealed.  On  further  ex- 
ploration it  was  discovered  that  he  entertained 
hatred  towards  many  persons,  even  friends  and 
benefactors.  The  veil  of  pretension  was  stripped 
from  the  subtle  hypocrite,  and  like  Judas  he  went 
to  his  own  place. 

Those  who  are  blessed  with  the  spiritual  love  of 
children  do  not  love  themselves,  their  family,  their 
name,  their  possessions,  their  beauty,  their  intel- 
lect, in  their  children.  They  love  the  Lord/ the 


148  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

church,  the  country,  the  neighbor,  society,  in  each 
little  infantile  form.  They  regard  them  from  a 
spiritual  stand-point  first,  and  from  a  natural  stand- 
point afterwards.  They  receive  them  as  precious 
little  spirits,  given  by  the  Lord  to  add  to  the 
beauty  and  glory  of  his  creation ;  to  bring  more 
of  the  sweet  influences  and  harmonies  of  heaven 
to  earth ;  to  contribute  to  the  order,  happiness,  and 
peace  of  society ;  to  increase  the  strength,  wisdom, 
and  liberty  of  the  country ;  to  adorn,  extend,  and 
brighten  the  church  upon  earth  •  and  to  take  their 
places,  star  after  star,  in  the  ever-increasing  galaxies 
of  angelic  societies  which  constitute  the  Lord's  king- 
dom in  the  heavens. 

The  parent  who  can  fix  these  glorious  destinies 
perpetually  in  his  eye  and  ponder  them  in  his  heart, 
is  capable  of  receiving  the  spiritual  love  of  children. 
As  we  strive  to  realize  those  destinies  by  our  indi- 
vidual regeneration,  we  shall  approach  nearer  in 
spirit  to  those  Blessed  Ones  who  have  charge  of 
our  beloved.  We  can  measure  that  approach  by 
changes  in  our  own  mental  states.  We  shall  en- 
tertain a  profounder  reverence  for  a  beautiful  and 
chaste  conjugial  love;  and  for  the  sacred  responsi- 
bilities, sorrows,  and  duties  of  maternity.  We  shall 
feel  a  tenderer  interest,  a  gentler  care,  a  sweeter 


WHO    TAKES  CARE   OF  THEM?  149 

sympathy  for  every  new  breath  of  God,  crystal- 
lizing itself  into  infantile  form,  even  before  it  has 
emerged  from  the  secret  laboratories,  where  the 
Great  Architect  works  unseen,  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  the  intellectual  earth,  and  spreading  the 
curtains  of  the  moral  heavens. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  in  the  midst  of  all  our 
earthly  darkness,  with  all  our  selfishness,  impa- 
tience, and  folly,  hereditary  and  acquired,  fully  to 
conceive  of  the  infinite  grace,  strength,  and  beauty 
of  this  spiritual  love  of  children  in  the  heart  of 
the  angels.  They  have  been  purified  from  all  mere 
worldly  thoughts  and  emotions.  Freed  from  the 
limitations  of  time  and  space,  they  have  also  been 
separated  from  every  false  and  evil  influence  which 
harasses  our  world  from  the  neighboring  hells. 
They  live  in  the  clear,  sweet,  pure  light  of  the 
love  of  God.  They  experience  inexpressible  joy 
in  the  sphere  of  innocence  and  peace  which  radiates 
from  the  little  child.  It  is  the  first  outflowering 
or  symbolic  expression  of  their  love  to  the  JLord. 

This  is  true  of  all  angels.  It  is  true  in  a  pecu- 
liar and  extraordinary  degree  of  those  perfect  and 
happy  ones,  to  whom  our  children  are  given  by 
the  Lord  to  be  reared  immediately  under  his  eye. 
Angels  differ  as  men  do ;  for  angels  are  only  men 

13* 


150  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

purified  for  heaven.  Some  are  rulers,  some  teach- 
ers, some  poets,  some  philosophers,  some  artists, 
and  so  forth,  in  endless  variety.  They  are  all  led, 
under  the  Lord,  by  their  ruling  loves,  of  which 
there  are  innumerable  genera  and  species;  each 
star  differing  from  another  in  glory.  The  ruling 
love  is  the  very  life,  the  essential  purpose  and  pas- 
sion of  existence. 

How  inconceivably  beautiful,  pure,  and  holy, 
must  they  be  in  whose  regenerate  hearts  the  ruling 
passion  is  the  love  of  little  children  !  J^o  spark 
of  selfishness  enters  into  this  celestial  fire.  More 
or  less  of  self  is  woven  into  all  other  emotions  of 
the  heart.  Conjugial  love  is  not  free  from  it,  for 
our  eternal  mate  is  a  portion  of  ourself.  We  may 
love  even  the  Lord  for  the  sake  of  ourselves.  But 
these  beautiful  Daughters  of  Zion,  who  live  in  the 
golden  atmospheres  of  its  highest  mountains,  love 
the  little  creatures  committed  to  their  care  for  the 
sake  of  the  Lord  ! 

These  angel-mothers  have  generally  been  good 
and  wise  earthly  mothers,  who  have  passed  through 
great  tribulation  to  their  final  perfection.  As  their 
interior  natures  were  unfolded  by  the  revealing 
processes  employed  in  the  world  of  spirits,  the  love 
of  infants  and  little  children  was  discovered  to  be 


WHO    TAKES  CARE   OF   THEM?  151 

their  ruling  passion.  They  now  live  in  the  eternal 
delights  of  that  heavenly  emotion.  Their  thoughts 
are  not  troubled  about  the  best  means  of  training 
and  education.  They  look  to  themselves  for  no- 
thing. All  the  knowledge,  intelligence,  and  wis- 
dom, necessary  for  the  perfect  fulfillment  of  their 
duties  flow  immediately  into  their  minds  from  the 
Lord  himself.  Nearest  to  the  Divine  Fountain, 
they  draw  the  Water  of  Life  in  crystal  cups,  and 
the  little  ones  who  drink  of  it  thirst  no  more  for 
ever! 

Children  are  assigned  to  these  angel-mothers 
according  to  their  interior  characters  with  unerring 
accuracy.  There  is  no  guess-work,  no  failure,  but 
perfect  law  and  order,  in  the  working  of  the  social 
machinery  of  heaven.  Each  child  goes  to  the  very 
guardian  best  fitted  to  develop  its  good,  to  suppress 
its  evil,  and  to  promote  its  eternal  happiness. 
These  heavenly  beings  have  no  partialities,  no  im- 
patience, no  imperfections.  They  receive  and  love 
all  children  alike.  "Whether  the  little  body  has 
been  drawn  from  imperial  purple  or  a  beggar's 
rags,  makes  no  difference.  No  earthly  shadows  of 
rank  or  form  or  circumstance  obscure  their  perfect 
vision.  They  stand  in  the  place  of  Christ  himself; 
receive  his  little  ones  in  their  arms;  bless  them  in 


152  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

his  name ;  and  continually  afterwards  carry  out  his 
will  in  their  loving  care  and  instruction. 

Compare  this  picture  of  the  heavenly  supervi- 
sion of  children  with  their  state  in  this  world ; 
their  bitter  and  cruel  bondage;  their  neglect,  their 
abuse,  their  sufferings,  their  sickness,  their  death ; 
or,  what  is  far  worse,  the  evil  examples,  the  false 
teaching,  the  early  corruption,  which  so  soon  stamp 
their  little  faces  with  the  cunning  and  sensuality  of 
older  natures ! 

O  sorrowing  parents !  whose  hearts  still  hang 
heavily,  like  drooping  flowers  turning  towards  the 
dust  and  the  grave ;  who  regard  these  glorious 
revelations  with  an  almost  total  incredulity ;  or,  at 
the  best,  with  a  mere  flutter  of  hope  that  they  may 
be  true :  may  that  same  guiding  Star  which  led  the 
wise  men  to  the  spot  where  the  Young  Child  was, 
lead  you  also  at  last  to  the  discovery  of  your  lost 
ones  amidst  the  opening  heavens  and  the  songs  of 
angels ! 

After  your  own  resurrection  and  translation  to 
the  heavenly  kingdom ;  wThen  you  can  endure  the 
splendors  of  the  celestial  sphere,  and  lift  your  eyes 
to  the  faces  of  those  angel-inothers ;  when  they 
restore  to  you  your  children — and  such  children  ! 
and  show  you  how  they  have  loved  them,  and  what 


WHO   TAKES  CARE  OF  THEM?  153 

they  have  done  for  them ;  in  the  bursting  love  and 
gratitude  of  your  hearts  you  will  fall  at  their  feet 
to  worship,  as  the  bewildered  Seer  of  Patmos  fell 
at  the  feet  of  the  angel  who  had  showed  him  the 

wonders  of  the  Apocalypse! 
G* 


CHAPTER    VI. 

WHAT   ARE   THEY   DOING? 

IN  that  sweet  transition-hour  between  clay  and 
night,  when  the  tumult  of  our  earth-life  sub- 
sides and  recedes,  and  the  heavenly  life,  which  has 
always  been  present,  although  not  always  perceived, 
shines  upon  us  again  like  the  stars,  the  children 
come  about  us,  and  the  soul  reaches  out  eagerly  after 
them  with  the  old,  inexpressible  tenderness.  We 
see  them  in  the  little  chairs  that  are  vacant ;  in  the 
little  swing  that  is  idle ;  in  the  little  books  that  are 
not  opened ;  in  the  little  toys  that  are  not  moved. 
We  see  them  also  in  a  better  light  than  the  feeble 
gleam  of  our  natural  memory.  Peeping  through 
the  gates  of  pearl,  we  see  them  living,  moving, 
growing,  loving,  in  the  Morning  Land.  We  know 
they  are  not  dead.  We  know  it  by  the  intuitions 
of  our  own  souls  whispering  of  immortality ;  by 
the  promises  of  the  Father ;  by  the  revelations  of 
the  Word ;  by  the  aspirations  of  faith  ;  and  by  the 
songs  of  imperishable  hope  ! 

154 


WHAT  ARE  THEY  DOING?  155 

The  forlorn  maiden  sits  at  this  pensive  hour  on 
the  yellow  beach,  gazing  o'er  the  vast,  blue  waters 
of  the  cruel  sea  which  separates  her  so  widely  from 
her  lover.  She  wonders  in  what  harbor  his  ship 
may  lie ;  what  he  says  and  thinks  and  does  ;  what 
scenes  he  beholds;  what  companions  he  is  with;  and 
she  fears  that  the  charms  of  that  far-off  Orient  may 
encroach  on  the  central  place  in  his  heart,  which 
she  claims  as  exclusively  her  own.  So  we,  bereaved 
ones,  stand  on  the  shores  of  time,  straining  our  eyes 
across  the  illimitable  expanse,  hoping  to  descry 
the  purple  mountains  of  the  Celestial  Country, 
asking  our  hearts  the  same  eager  questions,  whilst 
imagination  weaves  her  aerial  tissues  into  a  thou- 
sand shapes  of  beauty  and  joy. 

We  thank  God  that  our  lot  has  been  cast  in  these 
latter  times,  when,  in  the  fullness  of  his  love  and 
the  order  of  his  providence,  He  has  been  pleased  to 
give  us  a  clearer  manifestation  of  Himself;  to  open 
for  us  the  mysteries  of  his  Holy  Word ;  to  reveal  to 
us  the  true  nature  of  the  human  soul,  and  the  won- 
derful laws  and  phenomena  of  the  life  to  come. 
What  prophets  and  apostles  desired  to  see;  what 
poets  and  sages,  half  perceiving,  have  longed  to 
verify ;  what  the  patient,  suffering  heart  of  man- 
kind has  yearned  after  for  ages;  has  at  length 


156  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

been  unfolded.  Imagination  is  henceforth  needed, 
not  to  picture  to  us  what  might  be,  but  to  conceive 
clearly  what  is ;  not  to  give  form  to  the  hidden, 
but  to  understand  the  revealed. 

We  have  already  seen  that  our  little  ones  have 
beautiful  and  substantial  spiritual  bodies,  which 
grow  and  live  in  a  heavenly  world  composed  of 
purer  substances  than  ours,  but  having  the  same 
general  forms  and  appearances.  The  Sun  shines 
there  in  the  same  altitude  for  ever ;  but  it  grows 
bright  or  dim  to  them  according  to  their  own 
changing  spiritual  states.  There  are  mountains 
and  valleys  there,  and  forests  and  rivers  with  ever- 
varying  forms  and  colors.  The  clouds  move  there 
as  here,  shepherded  by  the  gentle  winds ;  and  all 
things  outward  are  beautiful  symbols  of  spiritual 
wonders  flowing  down  from  interior  heavens,  or 
from  the  Lord  himself.  There  is  morning,  with  its 
freshness  and  power ;  and  evening,  with  its  silence 
and  stars.  There  is  spring,  with  its  silver  and 
green;  and  summer,  with  its  purple  and  gold. 
There  are  architecture  and  art  and  music  and 
science ;  not  as  here,  in  their  first  buddings,  but 
in  their  full  flower  and  fruitage.  And  all  these 
things  are  as  real  and  solid  to  their  perceptions  as 
granite  and  diamond  are  to  us. 


WHAT  ARE   THEY  DOING?  157 

We  must  remember  this  when  we  ask  ourselves 
the  question,  What  are  our  children  doing  in  the 
spiritual  world?  We  must  not  think  of  them  as 
intangible  shades,  floating  hither  and  thither  in 
some  inconceivable  realm  of  similar  shadows. 
Such  absurd  phantasies  come  of  supposing  that 
spirit  must  be  something  which  possesses  none  of 
the  properties  of  matter ;  no  weight,  no  extension, 
no  impenetrability,  no  color,  no  shape,  —  "sans 
everything."  The  fact  is,  that  matter  is  totally 
inert  and  dead  in  itself,  and  has  no  properties. 
The  sensations  of  weight,  form,  color,  &c.,  are 
states  of  our  own  spiritual  organization,  which  we 
ignorantly,  but  falsely,  refer  to  our  material  world. 

Little  babes  are  given  at  once  to  their  angel- 
mothers,  who  devote  themselves  earnestly  to  their 
care.  They  wash  them,  dress  them,  ornament 
them,  amuse  them,  and  by  sports  and  songs  vand 
toys  and  lessons,  and  in  a  thousand  ways  un- 
kno^n  to  us,  give  form  and  beauty  to  the  dawn- 
ing affections  and  thoughts  of  the  little  mind. 
Their  language  is  at  first  composed  wholly  of 
vowel  sounds,  and,  like  music,  represents  only  the 
emotions.  Progress,  however,  in  the  evolution  of 
thought  is  so  rapid  there,  that  in  about  a  month  of 
our  time  an  infant  will  speak  the  angelic  or  spir- 

14 


158  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

itual  language,  of  which  the  words  are  ideas,  each 
containing  innumerable  things. 

There  is  but  one  language  in  the  spiritual  world. 
All  men  understand  that  language  now,  for  all  men 
are  spirits ;  but  they  have  no  consciousness  of  un- 
derstanding it  while  in  the  natural  body.  When 
they  leave  this  body  they  forget  all  human  words, 
and  enter  at  once  on  the  universal  speech,  by  which 
more  ideas  and  thoughts  can  be  conveyed  in  a  few 
moments  than  by  our  earthly  languages  in  a  whole 
day.  Children  express  themselves  at  once  in  this 
heavenly  tongue  according  to  their  mental  powers. 
We  speak  vainly  of  the  rapidity  of  thought,  and 
compare  it  to  lightning ;  but  we  can  have  no  con- 
ception in  this  world  of  the  profundity  of  idea  and 
felicity  of  expression  of  which  even  a  child  is  capa- 
ble in  the  next.  How  silly  is  the  pride  of  our 
knowledge,  the  pomp  of  our  wisdom !  Our  Lord 
Jesus,  who  saw  into  the  heart  of  things,  recognized 
in  the  hosannas  of  the  little  children,  which  so 
displeased  the  Chief  Priests  and  Scribes,  lyrics  and 
epics  of  praise  which  never  descended  to  human 
ears. 

It  may  strike  some  as  preposterous  that  we 
should  possess  the  knowledge  of  a  language,  and 
yet  have  no  consciousness  of  it  in  this  life.  Know- 


WHAT  ARE  THEY  DOING?  159 

ledge  which  is  unknown  seems  a  paradox.  He  has 
formed  a  poor  conception  of  the  human  soul  who 
thinks  it  has  no  operations  but  those  which  come 
to  our  external  consciousness.  The  human  body, 
which  is  the  material  image  of  the  soul,  tells,  in 
anatomical  language,  the  true  story.  We  are  con- 
scious of  its  mere  surface  and  of  its  voluntary  ex- 
ternal motions.  The  wonderful  functions  of  the 
heart  and  lungs,  and  of  the  liver  and  other  viscera; 
the  incessant  changes  of  the  blood ;  the  inconceiv- 
able vibrations  of  the  nervous  system,  more  aston- 
ishing than  those  of  heat  and  light ;  all  are  going 
on  within  us  from  moment  to  moment  without  our 
feeling  or  knowing  anything  about  them.  Just  so 
there  are  miracles  of  affection  and  thought  trans- 
acting within  our  souls, — which  are  as  truly  organic 
forms  as  our  bodies, — into  the  perception  and  know- 
ledge of  which  we  only  come  after  the  death  and 
separation  of  our  natural  bodies. 

Education,  which  is  the  communication  of  truths 
for  perpetual  application  to  life,  is  the  chief  busi- 
ness of  heaven.  It  is  carried  to  perfection  there ; 
for  no  evil  passions  spring  out  of  the  heart  to  ob- 
scure the  understanding  with  thick-coming  fallacies 
of  all  kinds.  It  is  never  finished ;  for  it  means  the 
bringing  forth  or  blossoming  out  from  inexhaust- 


160  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

ible  divine  centres,  of  everything  necessary  to  the 
spiritual  life  of  man.  We  acquire  new  truths  to 
eternity,  and  are  made  happy  by  using  them  as  fast 
as  acquired.  The  work  is  never  complete,  because 
the  drawing  forth  or  educing  process  is  never 
ended.  God's  wisdom  and  our  wisdom  run  in 
parabolic  lines,  for  ever  approaching,  yet  never  to 
meet;  and  therein  lies  the  secret  of  the  happiness 
of  heaven.  The  rest  of  the  saints  is  the  rest  of 
congenial  labor — of  labor  unthwarted  and  unsad- 
dened  by  sin. 

Every  one  is  assigned  his  true  place  in  that 
Kingdom  of  supreme  order  and  peace.  The  inte- 
rior nature  of  every  child  is  inspected  by  the 
wisest  angels ;  and  he  is  sent  into  that  quarter  and 
given  the  very  teachers  and  surrounded  by  the  very 
influences  best  adapted  to  develop  his  peculiar  fac- 
ulties to  the  highest  degree.  There  are  no  mistakes 
made  there  ;  no  one  is  in  the  wrong  place.  There 
are  no  incapables,  no  self-seekers,  no  hypocrites. 
There  is  no  dark  and  guileful  soul  there  dwelling 
in  imperial  palaces ;  no  beautiful  and  gentle  spirit 
cowering  in  hovels  and  poverty.  Neither  kings 
nor  people  have  any  voice  in  the  laws  and  govern- 
ment of  heaven,  except  only  as  servants  and  stew- 
ards. The  Lord  alone  is  the  Ruler ;  and  the  light 


WHAT  ARE   THEY  DOING f  161 

of  his  eternal  wisdom  is  for  ever  streaming  down 
in  swift  judgment  and  execution,  and  assigning  to 
each  being,  through  his  flaming  ministers,  his  exact 
place  and  business  and  portion. 

In  heaven  they  educate  the  intellect  by  first  edu- 
cating the  heart, — the  true  order,  quite  neglected 
in  this  world.  All  thought  flows  from  affection 
just  as  light  comes  from  heat.  That  Love  begets 
Wisdom — the  Father  the  Son — is  the  fundamental 
law  of  psychology.  Such  as  the  love  or  will  is, 
such  will  the  wisdom  or  understanding  be.  Pure 
and  good  affections  beget  genuine  truths ;  evil  pas- 
sions beget  all  manner  of  falsities.  Every  untruth 
among  men  is  the  offspring  of  some  evil  emotion 
or  appetite.  Men  abandon  their  prejudices  and 
errors  so  slowly  and  with  such  pain,  because  they 
love  them ;  because  they  have  their  roots  deep  down 
in  their  own  affections. 

In  the  spiritual  world  only  the  good  can  become 
wise.  On  this  earth  the  intellect  may  be  cultivated 
independently  of  the  emotional  nature.  It  may  be 
vastly  developed,  even  elevated  into  the  light  of 
heaven,  whilst  the  will  remains  unregenerate  and 
the  affections  and  appetites  are  evil.  But  after 
death  the  affections  govern  supremely.  The  divine 
life  flows  into  them  first,  and  from  and  through 

14* 


162  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

them  creates  a  correspondent  intellectual  world  of 
ideas,  thoughts,  and  expression.  The  understand- 
ing is  thus  the  outbirth  of  the  will. 

This  law  of  the  spiritual  world  creates  wonder- 
ful changes  in  the  mental  constitution  of  those  who 
leave  our  sphere  and  undergo  its  impartial  judg- 
ment. Many  a  learned  man,  many  a  philosopher, 
loaded  with  academic  honors  and  boasting  himself 
of  his  knowledge  and  memory,  is  stripped  of  every 
thing  he  had  acquired.  He  becomes  stupid  and 
silly,  and  sometimes  even  insane.  On  the  other 
hand  many  an  ignorant  and  humble  person  finds 
himself  suddenly  filled  with  thoughts  and  ideas, 
such  as  no  earthly  education  at  present  could  fur- 
nish. The  sole  reason  of  the  difference  is,  that  one 
has  received  the  divine  love  (which  creates  all 
things)  into  his  heart,  and  the  other  has  not.  This 
great  truth,  that  wisdom  or  true  knowledge  has  no 
permanent  existence  independent  of  good  affections, 
explains  the  mystical  words  of  our  Lord  : 

"Whosoever  hath,  to  him  shall  be  given;  and 
whosoever  hath  not,  from  him  shall  be  taken  even 
that  which  he  seemeth  to  have."  (Luke  viii.  18.) 

It  is  easy  to  cultivate  the  affections  of  little  chil- 
dren in  heaven.  Hell  with  its  infesting  spirits  and 
terrible  evils,  is  removed  from  them  to  the  utter- 


WHAT  ARE   THEY  DOING?  163 

most  bounds  of  the  universe.  Its  hateful  spheres 
can  never  reach  them.  The  earth-life  with  its 
limitations  of  time  and  space,  its  peculiar  imper- 
fections, its  trials  and  sorrows,  has  been  dropped 
like  so  much  weighty  ballast,  and  the  happy  spirits 
have  soared  away  into  atmospheres  of  ethereal  light 
and  beauty.  They  are  surrounded  by  all  that  is 
good  and  pure  and  gentle,  calculated  to  evoke  the 
same  qualities  from  the  depths  of  their  own  souls. 
They  never  see  or  hear  any  thing  that  is  false  or 
mean,  cruel  or  unpleasant;  no  quarrels  or  scold- 
ings ;  no  impatience,  no  fretfulness ;  no  exhibitions 
of  pride  or  vanity ;  no  cunning  or  hypocrisy ;  no 
selfishness,  no  doubts  or  unbelief;  no  contempt  of 
others.  Oh,  the  sweet  peace,  the  eternal  calm,  of 
the  moral  atmosphere  of  heaven  ! 

Besides  these  negative  advantages,  they  enjoy  the 
positive  and  continuous  influx  of  the  heavenly 
spheres  of  innocence,  peace,  and  love.  Every  angel 
about  them  loves  his  neighbors  and  companions 
better  than  himself,  and  the  Lord  supremely. 
Each  finds  his  true  happiness  in  exercising  all  his 
powers  to  promote  the  happiness  of  others.  The 
result  is  a  general  social  state  of  entire  harmony 
and  felicity.  Such  is  heaven.  And  as  these  an- 
gelic loves  are  ever  increasing  in  sweetness  and 


164  007?    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

power  by  daily  fresh  receptions  of  life  from  the 
Lord,  the  heavens  are  continually  becoming  more 
perfect  and  blessed. 

Surrounded  by  such  influences,  our  little  ones 
imbibe  the  love  of  the  Lord  and  the  neighbor, — the 
ruling  loves  of  heaven, — with  great  ease.  They  are 
trained  so  sweetly,  so  gently,  so  wisely,  that  their 
earthly -faults  and  imperfections  are  soon  removed; 
and  after  a  short  period  no  cloud  of  temper  ever 
sullies  again  the  serenity  of  their  sky.  They  ex- 
hibit the  tenderest  respect  and  affection  for  their 
guardians,  their  nurses,  and  their  little  companions. 
The  idea  of  self  almost  perishes  with  them,  being 
reduced  to  the  very  last  and  lowest  place.  They 
grow  daily  in  love,  and  in  all  the  wonderful  and 
beautiful  knowledges  that  flow  from  love.  Use  to 
others  becomes  the  guiding  star  of  conduct — the 
dominating  passion  of  life. 

They  are  very  early  taught  the  mysteries  of  the 
Word  in  its  internal  senses.  The  highest  angel  in 
heaven  acquires  new  perceptions  of  the  divine  love 
and  wisdom  when  he  explores  the  mind  of  a  little 
child  who  is  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The 
genuine  Word  of  God  has  always  interior  mean- 
ings, one  within  another,  like  concentric  spheres. 
The  spiritual  key  to  that  sense  nearest  to  our  hu- 


WHAT  ARE   THEY  DOING?  1C5 

man  comprehension  was  revealed  to  Swedcnborg. 
This  key  is  the  unfailing  touchstone  of  Divine 
revelation.  Whilst  it  unlocks  the  grandest  spir- 
itual truths  from  the  Pentateuch,  the  Psalms,  and 
the  Prophets,  from  the  Evangelists  and  the  Apoc- 
alypse ;  it  discovers  that  the  Proverbs,  and  several 
minor  books  received  into  the  Old  Testament,  and 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  all  the  Epistles  in 
the  New,  are  only  surface  books,  having  no  divine 
significance  and  no  organic  connection  with  angelic 
wisdom.  They  are  the  pious  writings  of  good 
men,  very  useful  to  the  external  church  here ;  but 
they  are  as  unknown  in  heaven  as  the  works  of 
Calvin  or  Luther  or  Wesley. 

Children  are  instructed  in  heaven  by  books  and 
pictures  and  by  oral  lessons  as  upon  earth,  but 
with  vastly  more  beauty,  order,  rapidity  and  per- 
fection. They  meet  in  magnificent  buildings,  glit- 
tering with  jewels  and  pearls,  corresponding  to 
spiritual  truths ;  or  they  walk  with  their  teachers, 
engaging  in  intellectual  discussions,  through  groves 
of  inconceivable  beauty  full  of  music  and  ravish- 
ing odors.  They  are  taught  all  our  arts  and 
sciences,  and  many  totally  unknown  in  this  world. 
Earth  at  its  best  is  but  the  shadow  of  heaven ; 
and  what  we  see  here  dimly,  or  not  at  all,  will 


166  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

there  be  revealed  to  us  in  the  splendor  of  hea- 
venly light. 

One  method  of  objective  teaching  exists  in  that 
world  which  is  impossible  here ;  but  the  possibili- 
ties of  that  wonderful  life  would  quite  confound 
our  feeble  imaginations.  Our  artist  toils  long  to 
cast  his  ideal  upon  canvas,  or  to  shape  it  from 
marble,  making  it  real ;  but  the  atoms  of  the  spir- 
itual atmospheres  can  be  made  by  angelic  volitions 
to  take  instantaneous  shape  and  form  expressive  of 
the  ideas  in  the  mind.  Historical  scenes  can  thus 
be  projected  into  outward  form,  and  made  to  ap- 
pear as  if  transacting  before  the  eye.  Swedenborg 
saw  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  represented  to 
children  by  this  process  with  inexpressible  tender- 
ness and  beauty,  affecting  the  interiors  of  their  sus- 
ceptible minds  with  holy  wonder  and  delight. 

This  process  of  projecting  ideas  into  scenes  and 
images  apparently  real,  enables  the  angels  to  ex- 
plore a  man  after  death,  so  that  his  mind  and 
memory  can  be  literally  turned  inside  out,  that 
nothing  hidden  shall  remain  undiscovered.  The 
murderer's  crime,  with  all  its  horrible  details,  is 
said  to  be  photographed  on  the  optic  nerve  of  the 
victim.  That  physical  impression  is  transient. 
Impressions  made,  however,  on  our  spiritual  nerve- 


WHAT  ARE   THEY  DOING?  167 

centres  are  indestructible,  and  may  be  called  out 
ages  afterward  for  our  conviction.  This  is  true  of 
every  word  we  have  uttered,  every  deed  we  have 
done.  In  this  manner  all  private  and  public  his- 
tory will  be  revealed  and  judged,  and  the  truth  on 
all  subjects  attained  at  last.  Thus  will  "the 
Books"  be  opened. 

Children  soon  discover  that  everything  external 
in  that  world  is  produced  by  and  represents  some- 
thing internal.  The  life  of  an  angel  is  wrought 
out  into  his  house,  his  furniture,  his  grounds,  and 
into  all  the  scenery  about  him.  These  outward 
objects  are  the  outflowering  of  his  spiritual  nature 
into  symbolic  forms  which  represent  his  quality 
in  every  jot  and  tittle.  They  are  peculiarly  his, 
as  a  snail's  shell  is  his,  or  as  a  man's  body  is  his. 
In  the  other  world,  an  angel's  seat  in  the  temple 
where  he  worships  is  so  peculiarly  his,  that  no 
other  person  can  occupy  it  without  producing  con- 
fusion in  the  minds  of  all  present. 

The  same  law  is  illustrated  also  in  every  circum- 
stance of  their  lives.  The  external  reveals  the  in- 
ternal. Their  clothing,  their  ornaments,  their  toys, 
their  chambers  to  the  minutest  particular,  their 
gardens  and  every  flower  in  them,  are  all  repre- 
sentative of  their  own  lives.  When  they  have  done 


1G8  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

or  thought  something  wrong,  a  stain  appears  on 
their  shining  dresses,  which  cannot  be  concealed  or 
effaced  by  artificial  means ;  but  when  the  fault  is 
explained,  confessed,  and  deplored,  the  correspond- 
ing stain  disappears  spontaneously  as  it  came.  When 
they  neglect  their  prayers  or  reading  the  Word  or 
any  other  duty,  some  beautiful  article  of  dress 
vanishes  from  their  wardrobes,  or  the  flowers  grow 
faint  and  dim  in  their  little  gardens.  On  the  con- 
trary, when  they  have  excelled  in  goodness  and 
duty,  some  new  and  exquisite  piece  of  apparel  or 
jewelry  is  produced  for  them,  or  their  flowers  bloom, 
as  if  smiling  and  approving,  with  heightened  color, 
fragrance,  and  beauty. 

So  of  every  thing  around  them :  it  is  symbolic 
and  representative.  The  garlands  and  wreaths  with 
which  they  are  adorned,  the  medals  and  coins,  the 
pictures  and  books  with  which  they  are  rewarded, 
all  report,  in  charming  hieroglyphic  language,  the 
story  of  their  moral  and  mental  development.  Nor 
are  sports  and  games  innumerable  wanting,  nor 
merry  social  gatherings,  nor  private  and  public 
exhibitions,  to  promote  the  general  welfare,  cul- 
ture, and  happiness  of  the  swiftly  expanding 
spirits. 

Swedenborg  frequently  saw  little  children  walk- 


WHAT  ARE   THEY  DOING?  169 

ing  in  beautiful  gardens  with  their  guardians  and 
nurses,  dressed  in  the  most  charming  manner;  whilst 
the  atmosphere,  the  clouds,  the  foliage,  the  flowers, 
and  every  thing  around  them,  underwent  surprising 
changes  of  form  and  color,  according  to  the  changing 
thoughts  and  affections  of  the  happy  promenaders. 
So  the  flowers  of  Eden  "gladlier  grew"  at  the 
tendance  of  the  beautiful  Eve.  Thus  was  ex- 
hibited to  the  life  the  groundwork  of  that  hidden 
sympathy  between  man  and  nature,  which  runs  in 
a  golden  vein  through  the  sweetest  songs  of  all  the 
poets. 

The  increase  of  affection  and  thought  is  the  busi- 
ness of  the  other  life.  Affection  and  thought  are 
the  meat  and  drink — the  "  daily  bread77  of  spirits. 
They  live  from  day  to  day  by  the  fresh  appropria- 
tion and  assimilation  of  affections  and  thoughts  from 
the  Lord  and  from  others,  just  as  we  do  by  the 
appropriation  and  assimilation  of  our  material  food. 
The  hunger  and  thirst  of  that  happy  world  is  for 
knowledge  and  righteousness.  No  one  busies  him- 
self there  to  get  money  or  food  or  clothing  or  houses 
or  lands ;  no  one  struggles  for  honors  or  office  or 
position  or  power.  Spirits  who  cannot  be  divested 
of  such  earthly  passions  and  fantasies,  do  not  go  to 
heaven  at  all,  but  wander  off  into  evil  and  selfish 

15  H 


170  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

spheres,  and  stumble  among  the  shadows  and  stone- 
heaps  and  pitfalls  of  the  darker  world. 

Our  children  are  taught  by  the  angels  to  have  no 
care  or  thought  for  external  tilings ;  because  they 
see  that  internal  and  spiritual  things,  goodness  and 
wisdom  with  their  myriads  of  genera  and  species, 
are  the  true  cause  and  source  of  all  objective  ap- 
pearances. Houses  and  furniture,  food  and  cloth- 
ing, wealth  and  power,  office  and  honors,  are  all 
distributed  gratis,  in  exact  correspondence  with  the 
states  of  affection  and  thought  which  deserve  and 
require  them. 

Has  not  our  Lord  said  : 

"  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you"? 

This  instantaneous  creation,  this  appearance  and 
disappearance  of  objects  which  seem  solid  and  real 
to  the  senses,  excites  the  stolid  incredulity  of  our 
unilluminated  natural  mind.  We  expect  to  find 
these  things  in  the  Fairy  Tales,  and  in  such  fictions 
as  the  Arabian  Nights ;  but  our  modern  self-reliant 
spirit,  with  its  habit  of  scientific  analysis  and  its 
sensuous  philosophy,  scouts  all  such  narratives  as 
the  dreams  of  poets  or  visionaries.  The  true  phi- 
losopher, the  wise  man,  who  distrusts  his  own 
powers  entirely,  and  who  despairs  of  any  correct 


WHAT  ARE   THEY  DOING?  171 

analysis,  but  follows  the  star  of  revelation  that 
shines  for  ever  in  the  East,  discovers  that  these 
misunderstood  fairy  tales,  mythologies,  parables, 
Oriental  stories,  and  "  dark  sayings  of  old,"  con- 
tain more  spiritual  truth  and  beauty  than  any  moral 
or  scientific  disquisitions  of  our  own  times.  They 
are  fragments  of  primeval  philosophy  and  wisdom, 
defaced  and  darkened  indeed,  yet  "  trailing  clouds 
of  glory"  from  the  lost  Edens  of  the  race.  This 
is  the  reason  why  they  reverberate  so  sweetly  in 
the  souls  and  songs  of  poets,  and  fill  the  gentle, 
appreciative  heart  of  childhood  with  such  wonder 
and  delight. 

These  curious  laws  of  the  spiritual  world  have 
been  sometimes  brought  down  into  the  natural 
world,  in  the  special  operations  of  Providence ;  and 
then,  from  our  unfamiliarity  with  the  causes,  we 
call  the  result  miraculous.  The  Israelites  were  fed 
forty  years  in  the  wilderness  on  manna,  a  species 
of  sweet  bread,  which  rained  from  the  sky  every 
day  except  the  Sabbath.  The  oil  and  meal  of 
the  widow's  house  were  daily  renewed  for  several 
months.  Our  Lord  also  on  two  different  occasions 
fed  thousands  of  people  on  a  few  loaves  arid  fishes. 
There  is  nothing  in  Fairy  Tales  or  the  Arabian 
Nights  more  incomprehensible  or  incredible  than 


172  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

these  things;  and  yet  no  Christian  can  deny  or 
escape  them. 

It  was  divine  power,  they  say,  specially  exerted 
for  certain  purposes;  and  so  it  was.  God's  will, 
operating  through  spirit  into  matter,  condensed  or 
precipitated  and  rearranged  the  chemical  atoms  of 
the  atmosphere  into  different  solid  matters.  These 
cases  illustrate  what  happens  all  the  time  in  the 
spiritual  world ;  for  every  thing  there  will  seem  at 
first  miraculous  to  us.  God's  power  is  the  only 
power  there;  and  it  creates  from  day  to  day,  through 
the  angelic  minds,  the  entire  universe  which  appears 
around  them. 

When  our  children  are  fully  grown,  they  will 
enter  on  the  duties  of  some  office  or  occupation. 
It  will  be  exactly  the  business  for  which  they  are 
best  fitted,  and  in  the  prosecution  of  which  they 
will  be  most  happy.  It  will  be  something,  the  soul 
and  life  of  which  is  to  make  others  wiser  and  hap- 
pier. Heaven  is  organized  like  the  human  body. 
Every  atom  works,  not  for  itself,  but  for  all  others. 
It  draws  from  the  general  reservoir  what  it  needs 
for  its  sustenance  and  no  more.  The  angels  are 
incessantly  busy  but  never  tired.  They  take  de- 
light in  the  performance  of  uses.  Their  work, 
their  amusements,  their  studies,  their  social  pleas- 


WHAT  ARE   THEY  DOING?  173 

n res,  move  in  eternal  circles  of  beauty  and  peace,  in 
which  there  is  no  sameness  and  no  satiety. 

They  are  for  ever  silently  progressing  in  the 
regenerate  life ;  for  ever  waking  to  a  new  sense  of 
imperfection ;  for  ever  receiving  new  power  and 
consolation  from  the  Lord.  No  matter  how  good, 
how  pure,  how  wise  they  become,  the  relation  be- 
tween the  infinite  and  the  finite  is  still  unchanged. 
There  are  new  worlds  of  Wisdom  ahead  of  them ; 
new  Apocalypses  of  beauty  awaiting  them;  new 
revelations  of  Love  in  store  for  them.  Our  hered- 
itary evil,  for  which  no  man  is  responsible,  except 
so  far  as  he  makes  it  his  own  by  acting  it  out  in 
the  field  of  his  own  life,  is  made  quiescent  and 
powerless.  It  is  there  however,  and  it  remains 
always  as  the  groundwork  of  the  contrast  between 
good  and  evil,  from  which  the  keenest  appreciation 
of  the  good  arises. 

Swedenborg  saw  a  beautiful  young  angel  in  the 
third  or  highest  heaven,  who  had  left  this  earth 
when  a  very  small  infant.  He  belonged  to  one  of 
the  royal  families  in  Europe.  He  had  been  reared 
in  heaven,  and  was  as  near  our  ideal  of  loveliness 
and  perfection  as  can  be  imagined.  His  external 
spiritual  senses  were  laid  asleep,  just  as  our  natural 
senses  are  in  the  mesmeric  trance,  and  his  inmost 

15  * 


174  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

character  from  hereditary  evil  was  allowed  to  come 
out  to  the  surface  and  display  itself  in  speech  and 
gestures.  It  was  found  to  be  full  of  licentiousness 
and  the  spirit  of  domineering,  the  special  traits  of 
his  ancestral  line.  When  he  was  brought  back  to 
his  conscious  state,  he  knew  nothing  of  what  had 
been  done,  and  was  the  same  beautiful  and  hea- 
venly being  as  before. 

Thus  it  is  with  all  men  and  angels ;  for  all 
angels  have  been  men,  born  on  some  material 
globe,  and  only  escaping  by  death  the  limitations 
of  time  and  space.  Evil  is  the  basis,  the  centre  of 
our  finite  being,  and  everything  good  and  true  is 
superadded  by  the  Lord — not  acquired  of  our- 
selves, but  given — and  built  up  around  it  and  con- 
cealing it  for  ever.  So  the  land  and  the  sea,  with 
all  their  infinite  varieties  of  beautiful  forms,  consti- 
tute but  a  thin  crust  of  our  globe,  beneath  which 
are  fathomless  pits  of  primeval  darkness,  sulphur- 
eous caverns  which  imprison  volcar.ic  forces,  and 
vast  oceans  of  central  fire. 

The  angels,  says  the  Word,  are  not  pure  in  His 
sight. 

So  our  children  grow  and  live  in  heaven,  inhab- 
iting palaces  of  indescribable  beauty ;  feeding  on 
delicate  fruits  and  nectars ;  clothed  in  shining  rai- 


WHAT  ARE   THEY  DOING?  175 

ment ;  sleeping  without  fear  of  any  rude  awaken- 
ing, and  drawing  new  life  from  the  Lord  in  their 
sweet  slumbers ;  associated  with  none  but  the  wise 
and  good ;  instructed  by  the  most  wonderful  meth- 
ods ;  enjoying  the  most  delightful  games  and 
amusements;  training  under  the  wisest  and  best 
masters  for  positions  of  usefulness  in  the  eternal 
life ;  developing  mentally  and  morally  beyond  our 
poor  human  conception ;  attaining  the  full  stature, 
beauty  and  perfection  of  the  human  form,  and  ap- 
proaching continually  nearer  and  nearer  to  that 
grander  ideal,  the  image  of  God  ! 

How  beautiful  is  all  this !  how  rational !  how 
consoling !  These  revelations  of  Swcdenborg  are 
the  sound  of  a  trumpet,  waking  us  up  from  the 
grave  of  our  sensual  nature,  and  inviting  us  to 
meet  the  Lord  and  his  angels  in  the  spiritual 
atmosphere  of  a  New  Life.  The  more  closely  they 
are  studied,  the  brighter  will  be  our  vision,  the 
more  touching  our  consolations.  Many  things  not 
explicitly  declared  can  be  logically  deduced  from 
the  general  laws  and  principles  revealed.  We  thus 
acquire  a  pervading  sense  of  the  reality  and  prox- 
imity of  the  spiritual  world.  Doubts  and  fears  are 
dissipated,  difficulties  are  removed.  Our  thoughts 
are  elevated  and  anchored  above.  Heaven  be- 


176  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

comes  a  world  of  substance  and  not  of  shadows. 
Hope  verges  into  fruition ;  faith  into  sight.  The 
grave  becomes  a  myth.  Life  is  a  thing  of  beauty 
and  joy  for  ever. 

We  cannot  yet  drop  this  enchanting  theme. 
One  other  great  event  awaits  our  children  in  hea- 
ven, to  make  their  characters  perfect  and  their  hap- 
piness complete.  When  they  have  attained  the 
resurrection — that  is,  when  they  have  put  off 
everything  selfish,  imperfect,  and  earthly;  every- 
thing which  the  inhabitants  of  that  living  world 
call  dead ;  when  they  have  reached  the  goal  of 
angelic  development,  and  are  "as  the  angels" — they 
enter,  male  and  female,  into  that  blissful  and  eter- 
nal union,  which  our  Lord  could  not  describe  to 
the  gross  and  sensual  ears  around  him  except  by  a 
negation, — so  widely  does  it  differ  from  the  "mar- 
r'age  and  giving  in  marriage"  of  this  world. 

Man  was  created  male  and  female  "in  the  begin- 
n*ng,"  which  always  involves  the  end.  He  was 
also  created  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God. 
The  great  elements  of  the  divine  nature,  Love  and 
Wisdom,  which  are  mystically  united  in  the  Divine 
B«ing,  were  so  separated  and  distributed  in  his 
finite  creatures,  that  their  eternal  attraction,  each 
for  the  other,  should  be  the  source  of  immeasurable 


WHAT  ARE  THEY  DOING?  177 

felicity  to  intelligent  and  loving  beings.  Such  is 
the  origin  of  sex. 

Woman  is  the  special  form  of  Love,  man  of 
Wisdom.  Not  that  woman  is  devoid  of  wisdom, 
or  man  of  love ;  but  the  relative  arrangement  of 
these  great  principles  is  different  in  the  sexes. 
Each  is  the  total  outward  expression  of  the  other's 
interior  life.  There  is  the  whole  secret.  Each 
was  created  for  the  other;  is  the  other's  comple- 
ment. Each  yearns,  therefore,  for  the  other  with 
inexpressible  longings.  Man  alone  is  not  the  image 
of  God,  nor  woman  alone ;  but  man  and  woman  so 
conjoined  in  affection  and  thought,  as  under  two 
forms  to  constitute  one  being.  This  is  the  hea- 
venly marriage,  into  which  enter  those  only  who 
have  attained  the  spiritual  resurrection,  and  have 
become  as  the  angels  of  God.  This  marriage  awaits 
our  children. 

These  spiritual  germs,  created  apart,  are  des- 
tined for  each  other  and  brought  together  by  the 
Divine  Providence;  sometimes  in  this  world, 
sometimes  in  the  world  of  spirits ;  sometimes  not 
until  both  parties  have  entered  the  heavenly 
sphere.  They  are  prepared  for  the  eternal  union 
by  all  the  experiences  of  this  life,  bitter  enough 

sometimes,  but  bearing  rich  seed  in  their  bosoms. 
H* 


178  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

The  preparation  is  continued  by  the  unfolding  and 
purifying  processes  in  the  other  world.  When  all 
other  loves  have  fallen  into  the  far  back-ground ; 
when  each  is  beyond  doubt  the  other's  final  and 
perfect  ideal ;  when  they  have  become  so  thor- 
oughly and  interiorly  harmonic  that  they  feel  and 
think  simultaneously ;  when  they  are  as  fully  one 
soul  as  if  only  one  heart  and  brain  animated  the 
two  bodies;  then  they  are  formally  united  by  beau- 
tiful ceremonies,  which  Swedenborg  was  occasion- 
ally permitted  to  witness.  They  afterwards  live 
always  in  the  same  house,  in  the  same  society. 
They  appear  at  a  distance  as  one  man,  and  their 
happy  spirits  run  in  the  same  golden  grooves  of 
affection  and  thought  for  ever. 

No  priest  officiates,  for  the  church  does  not  unite 
them.  There  is  no  seeking  or  giving  away  as  here 
on  earth.  The  process  is  organic  and  inevitable, 
like  birth  or  death.  It  is  like  the  blossoming  of 
some  beautiful  flower  after  a  century  of  silent  prep- 
aration. The  Lord  works  unseen.  No  one  ar- 
ranges or  assists  or  can  prevent  it.  It  occurs  in  the 
fullness  of  its  time,  and  men  celebrate  the  event 
with  music  and  dances  and  feasting.  The  social 
feast,  and  the  formal  assent  of  parties  and  the 
wedded  kiss,  are  signs  or  signals  that  the  Lord's 


WHAT  ARE   THEY  DOING?  179 

work  is  done ;  that  another  angel,  two  in  one,  has 
been  born  into  the  conjugial  sphere  of  the  Lord's 
Kingdom.  That  kind  of  work  is  never  undone. 
That  kind  of  birth  is  eternal  life. 

Swedenborg  on  one  occasion  attended  in  spirit  a 
charming  reception  given  to  their  friends  by  a 
newly  wedded  pair.  How  faintly  we  poor  sin- 
blinded  mortals  can  imagine  the  ineffable  beauty, 
splendor,  peace  and  chastity  of  those  heavenly 
gatherings.  The  angel  who  stood  at  the  gate  of 
the  floral  garden  in  which  this  new  Adam  and  Eve 
received  their  visitors,  admitted  none  into  that  bri- 
dal Eden  but  those  who  bore  on  their  faces  the 
holy  peace  of  conjugial  love. 

Happy  are  they  who  have  ascended  to  heaven 
before  their  spirits  were  tainted  by  the  impurities 
of  earth ;  who  have  grown  and  lived  and  loved  in 
those  radiant  atmospheres  of  peace  and  joy ;  who 
have  never  known  any  actual  sin,  and  whose  hered- 
itary evils  have  been  buried  in  eternal  torpor; 
whose  affections  are  represented  by  the  lamb  and 
the  dove,  and  the  naked  infant  garlanded  with 
flowers ;  whose  thoughts  are  reflected  in  the  green 
pastures  and  the  still  waters  that  lie  in  the  light 
of  golden  ethers  for  ever ;  whose  love  has  experi- 
enced no  rebuffs,  no  changes,  no  storms ;  who  have 


180  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

never  imagined  that  anything  cold  or  unfaithful  or 
discordant  could  ever  cast  its  shadows  on  a  wedded 
soul,  and  whose  torch  of  conjugial  consecration  is 
renewed  morn  after  morn  at  that  great  Sun  of  the 
spiritual  world,  which  is  the  altar  of  the  Lord ! 

A  faint  breath  of  that  conjugial  sphere  is  some- 
times wafted  downwards  and  felt  perceptibly  in  the 
human  heart.  It  comes  in  the  shape  of  "love's 
young  dream."  It  fires  the  soul  with  noble  aspira- 
tions ;  it  lights  up  the  imagination  with  beautiful 
ideals ;  it  softens  the  affections  into  inexpressible 
tenderness;  it  transforms  the  whole  being  with  its 
ravishing  sweetness ;  and  shining  forth  into  nature, 
it  colors  the  mountains  and  meadows  of  earth  with 
the  gold  and  purple  tints  of  the  Celestial  Morning. 
Music  and  poetry  struggle  in  vain  to  give  it  ex- 
pression; but  it  dies  away  amid  the  fast-coming 
cares  and  sorrows  of  life,  and  is  remembered  only 
as  a  beautiful  dream. 

That  dream,  gentle  reader !  was  a  voice  from  the 
spiritual  world,  prophesying  the  transcendent  real- 
ities of  conjugial  love.  It  will  return  to  you  with 
thousand-fold  intensification,  and  it  will  then  be 

the  life  of  heaven. 

***** 

Beloved  and  beautiful  Children !  who  left  us  in 


WHAT  ARE  THEY  DOING?  181 

such  agony  and  darkness  on  those  terrible  nights, 
without  a  word  of  farewell  or  a  receding  kiss  from 
your  little  hands,  we  know  it  is  well  with  you, 
and  that  you  are  more  beautiful  and  happy  than 
ever.  And  we  thank  our  good  Lord  for  being  en- 
abled to  follow  you  with  the  strong  eye  of  faith  into 
the  world  of  light  and  glory.  But,  oh  that  the  veil 
could  be  lifted  for  a  moment ;  that  you  could  leave 
your  shining  height  and  penetrate  our  world  of 
shadows ;  that  you  could  appear  in  this  poor  little 
room  in  which  you  used  to  play,  we  thought  con- 
tentedly, and  stand  smiling  on  us  by  this  little 
table  at  which  you  used  to  study,  and  which,  with 
bowed  heads,  we  have  so  often  moistened  with  bur 
tears ! 


CHAPTER   VII. 

CAN    WE    COMMUNICATE? 

THE  Seneca  Indians  had  a  touching  custom  of 
taking  beautiful  little  birds  to  the  graves  of 
their  friends,  loading  them  with  kisses,  caresses, 
and  messages  of  love,  and  letting  them  fly  away 
into  the  blue  sky.  Such  little  birds  are  the  winged 
aspirations  of  our  hearts,  which  are  daily  and  hourly 
soaring  away  in  quest  of  our  lost  ones.  Fruitless 
errand !  Little  doves  are  they  from  the  closed  and 
drifting  Ark  of  our  souls,  returning  only  to  our- 
selves ! 

Alas!  that  man,  the  Spirit,  the  only  spiritual 
creature  on  the  globe,  should  have  his  eyes  and 
ears  so  closed  to  the  Inner  World,  that  in  his 
darkness  and  sorrow  he  can  only  communicate  the 
passionate  longings  of  his  heart  to  a  bird,  or  a  star, 
or  the  invisible  winds ! 

If  there  is  indeed  a  spiritual  world ;  if  our  own 
thoughts  and  affections  move  and  live  in  it ;  if  our 
dear  friends  are  there,  loving  us  as  before ;  if  in- 

182 


CAN   WE  COMMUNICATE?  183 

deed,  spiritual  affinities  and  attractions  cause  prox- 
imity and  presence ;  why  do  we  not  receive  some 
token,  some  little  sign  ?  hear  the  fall  of  some  foot- 
step on  the  other  side  ?  or  see  the  waving  of  a  re- 
membered hand? 

Watchmen  of  Zion  !  who  study  the  providences 
of  heaven :  Pastors  of  Christ !  who  feed  his  sheep 
and  his  lambs :  give  us  light ;  explain  these  mys- 
teries ;  satisfy  our  hearts  and  minds.  Why  are  these 
two  worlds  so  closely  woven  and  yet  so  widely 
separated  ?  so  near  and  yet  so  far  ?  How  could  an 
angel  call  "out  of  heaven"  to  Hagar  in  the  wilder- 
ness, and  yet  no  angel  answers  the  perishing  Hagars 
in  the  darker  wilderness  of  our  spiritual  life  ? 

We  ask  you  for  bread :  you  have  given  us 
stones. 

Swedenborg's  spiritual  experiences,  so  prolonged, 
so  thorough ;  undergone  by  one  so  pure,  so  faithful, 
so  capable;  granted  especially  by  the  Lord  to  il- 
lumine what  was  dark  before,  and  to  give  a  new 
doctrinal  basis  to  a  New  Church, — offer  us  the  best, 
the  only  solution  of  these  difficulties. 

Swedenborg  declares  that  sin  and  evil  alone  have 
closed  the  avenues  between  heaven  and  earth. 
Wherever  there  has  been  no  sin,  there  is  open 
communication  between  the  natural  and  the  spir- 


184  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

itual  spheres  of  life.  Our  world  presents  one  of 
the  painful  exceptions  to  this  general  law  and  order 
of  the  universe.  Even  here,  in  the  times  before 
the  flood,  the  golden  age  of  the  poets,  angels  and 
good  spirits  were  in  daily  communication  with  the 
inhabitants  of  earth. 

Spiritual  death,  absence  from  God  and  angels, 
the  loss  of  goodness  and  truth  which  alone  really 
live,  is  the  penalty  of  sin.  Natural  death  was 
always  a  necessary  event  on  every  physical  globe. 
All  created  beings  are  first  born  in  this  lowest  or 
natural  sphere,  and  ascend  from  it,  by  dropping  the 
material  body,  into  higher  and  purer  regions  of  life. 
It  was  never  designed  that  man  should  live  on  the 
terrestrial  plane  for  ever;  nor  that  having  once 
escaped  its  bondage,  he  should  ever  return  to  it 
again. 

How  different,  however,  was  death  in  that  golden 
age  from  death  in  our  sorrowful  age  of  mingled  iron 
and  clay !  Then  every  human  being  attained  the 
ripe  fullness  of  earthly  life.  There  was  no  trace 
of  disease,  no  infirmity,  no  suffering.  When  every 
thing  was  prepared  for  the  change,  a  band  of  angels, 
relatives  and  friends,  came  for  the  happy  spirit 
about  to  be  released.  They  were  visible  to  all 
around.  Their  presence  was  announced  by  hea- 


CAN   WE  COMMUNICATE?  185 

venly  music,  aromatic  odors,  and  golden  lights 
The  old  man  passed  out  of  his  now  useless  natural 
body  as  softly  as  a  bird  or  a  butterfly  out  of  the 
little  shells  which  had  encased  them.  All  wit- 
nessed the  beautiful  translation ;  and  the  troop 
passed  away  to  their  spiritual  homes  'mid  hymn- 
ings  and  blessings  and  adorations.  The  newly- 
raised  spirit,  growing  ever  younger  and  more  beau- 
tiful, revisited  day  by  day  the  dear  ones  he  had 
left  on  earth,  and  cast  upon  their  hearts  and  homes 
the  consoling  light  of  heaven. 

The  secret  of  the  possibility  of  such  communi- 
cation is  to  be  found  in  the  inmost  harmony  of 
thought  and  affection  which  existed  between  the 
inhabitants  of  both  worlds  at  that  period.  The 
men  of  that  age  loved  the  Lord  supremely  and 
the  neighbor  as  themselves.  Each  person  found 
his  own  true  happiness  in  promoting  the  happiness 
of  others.  No  one  cared  for  riches  or  power  or 
honors  or  the  gratification  of  the  senses.  An  ex- 
treme simplicity  and  purity  of  life  prevailed.  Our 
base  appetites  and  unruly  passions,  our  pride  and 
envy  and  contempt  for  others,  were  all  unknown. 
They  took  no  thought  or  care  for  outward  things. 
They  beheld  in  the  external  world,  as  in  a  wonder- 
ful mirror,  the  spiritual  mysteries  which  all  out- 
10* 


186  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

ward  objects  involve  and  represent.  This  glorious 
and  heavenly  state  of  life  has  been  so  utterly  lost 
to  mankind,  that  we  regard  its  story  as  a  myth,  a 
tradition,  a  dream ! 

Man  gradually  receded  from  those  primal  heights 
of  goodness  and  peace.  He  began  to  attribute  his 
riches  of  affection  and  thought  to  himself  and  not 
to  the  Lord.  He  soon  loved  the  Lord  less  and  the 
world  more ;  the  neighbor  less  and  himself  more. 
An  evil  state  of  heart  and  mind  came  creeping  in, 
and  was  communicated  from  father  to  son.  Men 
began  to  acquire  property,  to  aggrandize  them- 
selves at  the  expense  of  others,  to  seek  power  over 
others,  to  despise  others  in  comparison  with  them- 
selves ;  and  thence  came,  with  accumulating  hered- 
itary additions,  the  awful  lusts  of  the  human  heart 
and  the  hideous  falsities  of  the  human  mind,  which 
the  wisdom  and  mercy  of  God  through  his  re- 
vealed Word,  his  own  Incarnation,  and  his  estab- 
lished churches,  have  been  able  only  partially  to 
subdue. 

It  was  impossible  for  angels  or  good  spirits  to 
keep  up  the  sweet  communion  of  the  olden  times. 
Angels  can  have  no  conscious  presence  except  Avith 
good  affections  and  true  thoughts.  When  a  man's 
end  in  life  is  the  acquisition  of  riches  or  power  or 


CAN   WE  COMMUNICATE?  187 

position  for  himself  and  his  children ;  when  his 
views  are  low,  sordid,  and  selfish ;  when  his  sen- 
sual appetites  have  the  mastery  of  his  spiritual  na- 
ture; the  interiors  of  his  spirit  are  closed.  Angels 
are  strangers  to  all  such  motives  and  sentiments, 
and  are  repelled  powerfully  from  those  who  enter- 
tain them. 

It  is  not  only  impossible  for  such  a  man  to  see 
angels  or  spirits,  but  he  loses  faith  in  their  exist- 
ence. He  doubts  whether  there  is  any  heaven  or 
hell.  The  very  being  of  a  God  becomes  with  him 
a  matter  of  question.  In  this  dark  and  pitiable 
state  of  mind,  he  believes  himself  superior  to  others 
in  knowledge  and  sagacity.  He  prides  himself 
especially  on  his  logical  powers  and  his  scientific 
attainments.  He  looks  down  with  surprise  or  de- 
rision upon  those  in  whom  the  love  of  God  and 
faith  in  the  Invisible  still  survive. 

It  was  the  divine  mercy  which  closed  the  avenue 
between  the  two  worlds.  The  evil  states  of  men 
not  only  repelled  the  angels,  but  they  invited  the 
devils  to  a  more  intimate  association.  Heaven  re- 
ceded, but  hell  approached.  The  world  of  spirits 
was  full  of  wicked  men,  who  came  from  the  earth, 
leaving  nothing  behind  them  but  their  material 
bodies — bringing  all  their  wickedness  with  them, 


188  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

and  now  doubly  capable  of  inflicting  the  deepest 
spiritual  injury  on  those  who  were  left  behind. 
The  Sacred  Word  describes  the  effect  on  human 
society : 

"  The  wickedness  of  man  was  great  in  the  earth, 
and  every  imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart 
was  only  evil  continually." 

Earth  and  hell  were  becoming  blended  in  mon- 
strous union.  Evil  spirits  took  possession  of  the 
souls  and  bodies  of  men.  Then  occurred  that  great 
catastrophe,  described  symbolically  as  a  flood,  by 
which  the  spiritual  life  of  man  was  suffocated,  just 
as  men  are  drowned  in  the  water.  The  avenues 
between  the  inner  and  outer  worlds  were  closed. 
A  "  remnant "  was  saved ;  open  intercourse  ceased  ; 
a  new  order  of  life  was  established ;  and  a  written 
Word  and  an  external  church  became  necessary  to 
connect  the  spirit  of  man  with  the  Lord  and  with 
heaven. 

Since  that  period  there  have  been  occasional  and 
partial  openings.  Prophets  and  Apostles,  Seers 
and  Saints,  in  all  ages  and  countries,  have  had 
glimpses  of  the  Holy  City,  and  have  communicated 
to  their  peoples  spiritual  light,  varying  in  degree 
and  intensity,  but  enough  to  keep  alive  in  the  heart 


CAN   WE  COMMUNICATE?  189 

of  the  world  a  sincere  faith  in  angels  and  devils 
and  a  life  after  death. 

Why  cannot  the  intercourse  with  the  spiritual 
world  be  now  restored  and  resumed  ?  What  is  to 
hinder  us  from  having  our  eyes  and  ears  now 
opened,  so  that  we  may  test  for  ourselves  the  truth 
of  what  our  Prophets  and  Seers  have  told  us  ?  Are 
there  not  intimations  loud  and  clear  throughout 
the  world,  that  this  glorious  event  is  about  to  take 
place  ?  Need  we  despair  of  seeing  and  conversing, 
before  we  die,  with  those  precious  ones  who  have 
gone  before  us  ? 

To  answer  these  questions  rationally,  we  must 
first  consider  what  is  going  on  in  that  world  of 
spirits  which  is  nearest  to  our  own,  and  which  we 
would 'first  enter,  or  see  into,  if  permitted. 

That  world  is  a  shifting  scene ;  a  world  of  judg- 
ment, of  change,  of  coming  and  going.  Nothing 
there  is  fixed.  Two  powerful  currents  of  life  run 
through  that  world ;  one  setting  strongly  towards 
heaven,  the  other  towards  hell.  Those  who  are 
preparing  for  heaven  are  daily  receding  farther  and 
farther  from  our  earth ;  because  they  are  putting 
off  their  earthly  modes  or  states  of  thought  and 
feeling,  and  becoming  more  and  more  like  the 
angels.  They  are  being  instructed  in  spiritual 


190  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

things;  they  are  unlearning  or  forgetting  natural 
things.  They  cannot  come  back  to  us  any  more 
than  the  fruit  can  return  into  the  form  of  a  bud. 
It  would  be  painful,  it  would  be  injurious  to  their 
spiritual  natures,  to  take  so  many  backward  steps 
to  be  brought  into  rapport  with  us.  No :  we  can 
go  to  them  by  making  the  same  spiritual  progress 
forwards ;  we  should  not  wish  them  to  be  brought 
back  to  us. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who  compose  the 
downward  current  are  being  divested  of  what  little 
truth  and  good  they  have  ever  had,  and  are  prepar- 
ing for  hell.  They  are  becoming  more  and  more 
earthly,  gross  and  sensual.  They  have  a  powerful 
tendency  to  return  into  this  world.  That  being 
impossible,  they  gravitate,  as  it  were,  into  the  evil 
atmospheres  of  our  spiritual  life,  and  attempt  to 
take  possession  of  us.  They  are  anxious  to  com- 
municate with  us ;  to  knock  on  tables  and  attract 
our  attention;  to  write  through  our  hands  and 
teach  us;  to  compel  our  belief;  to  control  our 
thoughts.  They  have  all  our  own  gross  appetites 
and  passions ;  more  than  our  own  falsities  and 
errors.  Operating,  however,  from  the  spiritual 
side,  they  may  be  inconceivably  subtle,  cunning, 
and  dangerous. 


CAN   WE  COMMUNICATE?  191 

We  are  not  ready  in  this  world  for  the  instruc- 
tions, purifications,  and  judgments,  which  are  ef- 
fected in  the  world  of  spirits.  They  come  to  u& 
only  after  death.  Nothing  could  be  more  disas- 
trous to  our  spiritual  life  than  to  have  the  light  of 
that  world  suddenly  poured  upon  us  here.  We 
have  our  earth- work  to  do  until  we  are  called  to  go 
up  higher — work  of  infinite  importance  to  our  own 
hereafter ;  and  we  should  be  unfitted  for  our  uses 
in  this  world  if  we  were  living  consciously  in  the 
other. 

Swedenborg,  indeed,  lived  that  double  life ;  but  it 
was  his  special  mission,  and  he  was  prepared  for  it 
and  protected  in  it  by  the  Lord.  His  Diary  is  full  of 
accounts  of  terrible  assaults  and  infestations  of  evil 
spirits,  which  certainly  would  have  overwhelmed 
any  human  being  less  favorably  situated.  He  has 
made  for  us,  in  a  far  more  perfect  and  philosophical 
manner  than  we  could,  the  very  researches  we  so 
ardently  desire  to  conduct  for  ourselves.  His 
evidence  is  invaluable ;  it  is  sufficient ;  it  is  satis- 
factory. 

A  hundred  years  before  the  modern  Spiritual 
Manifestations,  and  long  before  Mesmerism  and  its 
higher  phenomena  were  discovered,  Swedenborg 
was  familiar,  by  personal  experience,  with  all  the 


192  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

sounds,  sight,  movements,  writings,  and  revelations 
reported  by  modern  "  mediums."  Nothing  escaped 
him,  from  the  mere  displacement  of  material  arti- 
cles to  the  most  astounding  optical  phenomena  re- 
corded by  Home  or  Andrew  Jackson  Davis.  He 
takes  a  view  of  all  these  things  from  the  interior. 
He  gives  the  true  solution  of  the  phenomena.  He 
exposes  the  tricks,  the  fantasies,  the  subtle  preten- 
sions of  these  obsessing  spirits.  He  describes  their 
character  with  great  fidelity.  Most  of  them,  he 
intimates,  are  great  talkers  and  babblers,  pretend- 
ing to  be  angels  of  light,  whose  communications, 
full  of  sound  and  a  show  of  knowledge,  lead  to  no- 
thing useful,  true,  or  good ;  and  their  secret  ambi- 
tion is  to  teach  and  lead  men  in  their  own  way,  in- 
dependently of  the  Lord  and  the  Word. 

At  every  period  of  remarkable  spiritual  open- 
ing, the  evil  rushes  in  from  the  other  world  as  well 
as  the  good.  When  our  Lord  was  on  earth  in  a 
physical  form,  the  same  kind  of  spirits  possessed 
the  bodies  of  men  in  a  manner  incomprehensible  to 
oui  natural  thought,  and  His  redeeming  love  was 
signally  manifested  in  casting  them  out.  So  now, 
when  He  has  come  again  in  great  power  and  glory, 
through  a  manifestation  of  spiritual  truth,  these 
evil  spirits  reappear,  and  on  a  new  plane  and  in  a 


CAN   WE  COMMUNICATE?  193 

different  manner  attempt  to  acquire  their  coveted 
supremacy  over  the  human  race. 

Swedenborg  impresses  upon  us,  in  the  most  pow- 
erful manner,  the  danger  of  open  intercourse  with 
spirits.  Not  only  is  there  danger  of  being  taught 
all  kinds  of  false  doctrines,  but  of  being  led  into 
evils  of  life,  which  will  endanger  the  salvation  of 
the  soul.  When  a  man's  mind  is  laid  open  to 
spirits,  they  enter  into  the  whole  of  his  external 
memory.  They  know  his  character,  his  thoughts, 
his  wishes,  better  than  he  does  himself.  They  can 
make  him  think  and  believe  what  they  please. 
They  can  confirm  him  in  all  his  errors  of  opinion, 
and  impress  upon  him  the  most  incredible  falsities. 

The  vast  majority  of  spiritual  communications 
are  utter  delusions,  the  information  of  the  medium 
not  extending  a  hair's  breadth  beyond  the  natural 
range  of  our  spiritual  forces. 

To  illustrate :  Some  poor  mourner  visits  one  of 
the  mediums  to  receive  a  message  from  a  lost 
friend.  The  medium  consents.  The  spirit  proceeds 
to  describe  the  deceased  person  with  the  utmost  ac- 
curacy. Incidents  are  recalled  which  have  been 
long  forgotten  by  the  applicant  himself.  The  me- 
dium will  write  something  on  paper  in  the  well- 
known  handwriting  of  the  lost  friend.  There  is 

17  I 


19 i  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

no  mistaking  it.  If  the  questioner  shakes  hand 
with  the  medium,  he  will  feel  exactly  the  remem- 
bered pressure  of  his  friend's  hand,  distinguishable 
from  all  others.  He  then  delivers  some  message 
about  family  matters,  indicating  a  most  unexpected 
acquaintance  with  the  business  of  other  people. 
The  inquirer  is  confounded.  His  conviction  is 
forced.  It  seems  a  miracle,  or  a  veritable  commu- 
nication from  his  deceased  friend. 

Now  to  one  familiar  with  the  laws  and  phenom- 
ena of  the  spiritual  world,  as  revealed  through 
Swedenborg,  this  evidence  is  altogether  inconclu- 
sive. The  spirit  acting  through  the  medium  may 
never  have  seen  the  deceased  person  or  heard  of 
him.  The  latter  may  be  away  off  in  heaven  and 
know  nothing  whatever  of  the  trick  imposed  on  his 
earthly  friend.  The  spirit  who  actuates  the  me- 
dium has  entered  the  natural  memory  of  the  ques- 
tioner, and  reproduced  everything  from  its  recesses. 
If  he  could  make  himself  visible  to  the  natural  eye, 
he  might  assume  the  exact  form  of  the  deceased  in- 
dividual, so  that  escape  from  his  deception  would 
be  impossible. 

A  more  astounding  case  may  be  proposed.  If 
your  spiritual  eyes  were  opened,  your  chamber 
might  be  suddenly  illumined  with  magical  lights 


CAN   WE  COMMUNICATE?  195 

of  gold  and  purple.  In  the  midst  of  them  a  glo- 
rious angel  might  appear,  with  the  face  of  the 
Apostle  John,  radiant  with  holy  love.  He  might 
speak  to  you  in  accents  which  would  melt  you  to 
tears,  and  waving  his  wand,  might  show  you  the 
scenery  of  heaven ;  palaces  of  precious  stones ; 
groves  of  inconceivable  beauty,  and  many  of  your 
own  deceased  friends  walking  about  in  shining 
robes  and  beckoning  you  thither.  You  would  be 
enraptured  at  the  sight,  ready  to  believe  anything 
your  professed  angel  might  tell  you,  or  even  to  fall 
at  his  feet  and  worship. 

Your  visitor  might  all  the  time  be  an  evil  spirit, 
preparing  to  plant  the  most  dangerous  fallacies  in 
your  mind,  and  to  lead  you  secretly  on  to  your 
spiritual  death.  He  has  produced  a  fantastic 
vision,  apparently  real,  by  a  magical  art  well 
known  in  the  evil  world.  Wicked  spirits  thus  in- 
fest and  torture  each  other  by  all  kinds  of  fantastic 
creations.  These  things  are  exemplified  in  the 
mesmeric  sleep,  when  the  mesmerized  person  sees 
whatever  the  operator  chooses  to  conjure  up  in  his 
mind — an  immense  serpent,  a  burning  house,  a 
sinking  ship,  or  a  scene  of  murder — the  victim  be- 
traying plainly,  by  his  strong  emotions,  that  he 


196  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

thinks  everything  is  real,  and  cannot  break  the 
spell  which  has  bound  him. 

The  vast  possibility  of  spiritual  injury  from  open 
intercourse  may  be  surmised  from  these  two  illus- 
trations. Spirits  may  personate  our  nearest  and 
dearest  friends,  or  those  whose  words  have  the 
greatest  authority  over  our  minds — Calvin  or  Lu- 
ther or  Wesley  or  Swedenborg.  They  may  lead  us 
subtly  into  pernicious  doctrines.  They  may  play 
upon  our  passions  and  prejudices  as  they  please. 
They  may  inflate  us  with  the  idea  that  we  have 
been  chosen  for  missions  of  vast  importance.  They 
may  start  us  on  the  most  foolish  enterprises,  ending 
in  ruin.  They  may  poison  our  minds  against  our 
bosom  friends ;  husband  against  wife,  and  wife 
against  husband.  They  may  wreck  the  peace  of 
families,  break  the  silver  chords  of  reason,  and  im- 
pel to  murder  and  suicide.  All  of  this,  indeed, 
they  have  repeatedly  done. 

But  will  not  the  swift-descending  angels  also 
come  down  and  protect  us  from  these  infestations 
of  evil  spirits  ?  Why  cannot  more  good  than  evil 
come  of  these  manifestations?  Will  not  Divine 
Providence  overrule  every  thing  for  benignant 
ends?  Undoubtedly;  but  it  is  necessary  to  re- 
member that  all  great  organic  changes  in  the  spir- 


-  CAN   WE   COMMUNICATE?  197 

itua!  as  well  as  in  the  natural  world,  are  slow  in 
progress,  and  the  true  meaning  of  them  cannot  be 
seen  at  once.  A  change  in  the  relations  between 
the  two  worlds  is  impending ;  indeed  it  is  already 
begun.  It  is  the  hope  of  the  future,  and  the  basis 
for  the  restoration  of  all  things  and  the  return  of 
the  golden  age. 

Nevertheless  the  first  phenomena  will  be  misun- 
derstood and  misinterpreted,  unless  men  are  armed 
and  prepared  with  true  spiritual  doctrines  to  analyze 
and  give  them  their  right  value  and  significance. 
When  the  doors  are  partially  opened  or  the  veil 
removed,  the  heaviest  and  lowest  portions  gravitate 
downward ;  and  we  have  a  deluge  of  vague,  trifling, 
commonplace  communications.  Some  of  these  prob- 
ably come  from  good  and  simple  spirits  really 
anxious  to  communicate  with  their  earthly  friends. 
The  majority  of  them,  however,  belong  to  the  classes 
described  above.  Angels  and  good  spirits  can  only 
appear  through  men  who  are  as  angelic  and  good 
as  themselves.  The  heaven  above  us  will  only 
come  down  into  the  heaven  within  us.  The  "open 
heavens"  will  be  connected  interiorly  with  the 
Lord's  New  and  Everlasting  Church,  the  New 
Jerusalem. 

The  Lord  meanwhile  will  hold  the  evil  in  check 

17  * 


198  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

so  far  as  may  consist  with  the  free  agency  of  man , 
and  all  the  latent  good  possible  will  be  deduced 
from  it  by  the  Divine  Providence.  Already  these 
spiritual  infestations  have  convinced  millions  of  the 
reality  and  proximity  of  the  spiritual  world, — facts 
in  great  danger  of  being  lost  to  mankind  between 
the  scornful  denials  of  the  skeptical  element  on  one 
side,  and  the  cold  abstractions  of  the  Christian 
Church  on  the  other.  They  will  also  prepare  the 
way  for  the  reception  of  the  authorized  disclosures 
of  Swedenborg  as  nothing  else  could  ever  have 
done. 

These  spiritual  manifestations  will  increase  in 
extent,  power,  and  pretensions.  Neither  the  ridi- 
cule of  the  skeptic  nor  the  unbelief  of  the  Chris- 
tian will  repress  them.  The  true  will  begin  to 
appear  as  well  as  the  false.  As  the  Church  de- 
scends, as  a  new  life  buds  up  in  the  heart  of  the 
world,  open  visions  will  become  more  and  more 
frequent,  pregnant  with  truth  and  use  and  beauty. 
Swedenborg  has  given  us  the  key  whereby  we  may 
test  all  the  spirits  as  the  Apostle  commanded.  It 
is  our  duty  to  use  it.  We  shall  thereby  warn  men 
of  the  dangers  which  are  springing  upon  them  from 
the  spiritual  world ;  and  be  ready  also  to  welcome 


CAN    WE   COMMUNICATE?  199 

the  "glad  tidings"  which  angelic  messengers  will 
certainly  bring  us  from  the  same  source. 

The  test  or  touchstone  of  good  or  evil  spirits  is 
plain  and  practical.  There  are  two  great  central 
truths  in  the  spiritual  universe.  No  angel  or  good 
spirit  is  ignorant  of  them.  Whatever  doubts  some 
good  men  may  have  had  respecting  them  here,  they 
are  all  dissipated  by  a  little  instruction  in  the 
world  of  spirits.  These  great  truths  are  the  fol- 
lowing : 

The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  his  Glorified  Human 
Person  is  the  Supreme  God  of  the  universe. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  are  divine  truth,  having 
spiritual  and  celestial  senses,  meaning  within  mean- 
ing, adapted  to  men,  spirits,  and  angels,  according 
to  their  degree  of  life. 

Faith  in  these  doctrines,  and  a  life  according  to 
the  commandments  given  by  the  Lord  through  his 
Word,  are  the  basis  of  heavenly  character.  A  burn- 
ing love  for  these  doctrines  creates  a  sphere  of 
spiritual  power  in  the  minds  of  angels  and  good 
spirits,  which  protects  them  for  ever  from  the 
assaults  of  evil  ones.  It  is  the  same  faith  and 
love,  the  s.arne  sphere  of  the  Lord  and  the  Word, 
which  works  out  our  deliverance  here  from  the 
bondage  of  sin,  and  leads  us  into  the  light  and 


200  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

liberty  of  the  Gospel.  Evil  spirits  and  devils  hate 
these  heavenly  doctrines  —  hate  the  Divinity  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  sanctity  of  the  Word,  and 
deny  or  ignore  them  in  their  communications  with 
men. 

When  spirits  profess  to  come  from  the  Heavenly 
Country  to  reveal  to  us  its  beautiful  laws  and  phe- 
nomena; to  deliver  us  from  the  bondage  of  earthly 
error  and  darkness ;  and  to  lead  us  into  the  light 
arid  peace  of  eternal  truth ;  and  know  nothing  of 
the  Lord  and  King  of  that  Happy  Land,  con- 
founding Him  in  his  earth-life  with  Socrates,  Seneca, 
and  other  teachers  of  morals ;  and  when  they  seem 
ignorant  of  his  Holy  Word ;  of  its  illumining  and 
sanctifying  power  over  men,  spirits,  and  angels ; 
and  of  the  boundless  arcana  of  wisdom  and  beauty 
which  are  for  ever  being  revealed  in  heaven  from 
its  inexhaustible  fountains;  how  can  we  credit  their 
utterances,  or  believe  that  they  are  any  thing  but 
nicked  impostors? 

Intercourse  with  angels  being  next  to  impossible 
on  account  of  our  hereditary  and  acquired  evils; 
communication  with  spirits  being  dangerous  and 
uncertain  in  the  present  condition  of  the  race;  the 
Lord  has  most  mercifully  prepared  a  great  and 
good  human  medium,  to  whom  He  revealed  the 


CAN   WE   COMMUNICATE?  201 

internal  or  spiritual  sense  of  his  Word,  which  har- 
monizes into  a  new  and  glorious  unity  of  doctrine 
all  the  discrepancies  of  the  letter,  and  who  was 
permitted,  under  divine  protection  from  assaulting 
falsities,  to  see  and  hear  enough  of  the  wonders 
behind  the  veil  to  illumine  our  minds,  comfort  our 
hearts,  confirm  our  faith,  and  strengthen  our  love 
in  a  manner  never  before  vouchsafed  to  mankind. 
The  Coming  Church  will  listen  only  to  him,  and 
to  those  who  bring  credentials  similar  to  his  own, 
stamped  beyond  question  with  the  sign  and  seal  of 
the  Lord  and  the  Word. 

It  -  is  hard  to  give  up  all  hope  of  a  conscious 
communication  with  our  departed  treasures  in  the 
present  life.  Never  to  see  their  beautiful  faces 
again ;  never  to  hear  their  sweet  voices ;  never  to 
press  their  little  hands  to  our  lips !  Never !  For 
in  the  weary  length  of  despairing  hours,  this  earth- 
life  seems  a  forever  to  our  grief.  And  yet  it  is 
better  thus.  We  cannot  precipitate  ourselves  into 
their  states,  nor  cruelly  draw  them  back  into  ours. 
The  kindly  influences  which  will  bring  us  sweetly 
together  are  all  at  work ;  unseen  but  sure ;  softer 
than  the  dew,  purer  than  the  light,  stronger  than  the 
electric  girdle  that  binds  the  earth.  Therefore  let 
our  souls  "  wait  patiently  on  the  Lord." 


202  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

It  is  pleasant,  however,  very  pleasant,  to  know 
that  this  seemingly  titter  separation  is  not  an  arbi- 
trary decree  of  God — not  a  necessary  condition  of 
things ;  but  a  positive  evil  brought  about  by  sin, 
continued  upon  our  race  by  its  own  blindness  and 
disobedience;  an  evil  against  which  Providence 
continually  contends  for  us,  and  which  He  will 
finally  overcome  for  us,  by  means  of  his  opening 
Word  and  ever-increasing  angelic  ministrations. 

In  the  far  future,  which  inevitably  awaits  man- 
kind, when  the  moral  world  shall  have  described 
its  destined  orbit  and  the  golden  age  returned 
again ;  when  the  light  of  the  moon  shall  be  as  the 
light  of  the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  shall  be 
sevenfold ;  we  verily  believe  that  in  every  house- 
hold of  the  human  race  will  be  set  up  a  Jacob's 
ladder — not  in  vision,  but  in  reality — whereby  will 
be  restored  for  ever  the  lost  communication  between 
angels  and  men. 

Our  departed  friends,  however,  very  frequently 
communicate  with  our  spirits  in  a  manner  which 
does  not  come  within  the  range  of  our  conscious- 
ness. We  live,  move,  and  think,  in  total  ignorance 
or  oblivion  of  by  far  the  greater  part  of  our  own 
spiritual  activities.  We  know  no  more  of  the 
secret  operations  of  our  interior  life,  than  we  do  of 


CAN   WE   COMMUNICATE?  203 

the  organic  wonders  going  on  in  the  anatomical 
recesses  of  our  own  bodies.  These  things  will 
come  to  us  after  death  like  old  and  sweet  memories. 
We  will  find  many  a  familiar  face  about  us,  of 
whom  we  now  know  nothing.  "We  will  remember 
many  happy  visits,  many  kind  and  gentle  services 
from  those  we  call  dead,  and  of  which,  in  our 
earth-life,  we  had  no  perception.  In  that  happy 
by-and-by,  when  all  that  is  amiss  in  this  world 
shall  be  readjusted,  we  shall  discover  the  key  to 
many  a  perplexity,  the  interpretation  of  many  a 
dream. 

It  is  a  doctrine  of  Swedenborg  that  life,  with  all 
its  affections  and  thoughts,  flows  downward  from 
the  Lord  through  the  different  heavens,  and  from 
them  through  the  world  of  spirits  into  men ;  one 
and  the  same  in  its  essence,  infinitely  varied  in  its 
manifestations  according  to  the  forms  through 
which  it  flows ;  thus  holding  all  parts  of  the  uni- 
verse in  orderly  connection,  the  entire  unity  being 
visible  to  the  Lord  alone.  Man  originates  nothing, 
has  nothing,  is  nothing  of  himself.  He  could  not 
breathe  or  think  or  feel,  unless  he  were  adjoined  to 
spirits,  and  through  them  to  angels,  who  passed 
down  the  golden  cup  of  life  from  one  to  another, 
receiving  it  from  the  Lord,  and  pouring  out  the 


204  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

dregs  upon  tbe  animals,  the  plants,  and  the  min- 
erals of  the  earth. 

Nothing  of  this  appears  from  an  outside  stand- 
point; and  men  have  built  up  a  vast  sensuous  phil- 
osophy of  mind  and  matter,  which  discredits  the 
spiritual  theory  altogether.  When  grounded  and 
confirmed  in  their  self-reliant  materialism,  which  is 
based  on  the  uncorrected  evidence  of  their  senses, 
it  is  almost  as  impossible  for  them,  boasting  of 
their  riches  of  science  and  reason,  to  believe  and  be 
saved  by  a  system  of  spiritual  doctrine,  as  for  a 
camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle. 

Every  man  seems  to  himself  to  occupy  the  cen- 
tral point  in  the  universe,  and  the  entire  heavens 
actually  communicate  with  the  interiors  of  every 
human  soul.  When  the  outer  senses  are  laid  into 
a  certain  sleep,  the  interior  faculties,  communicating 
as  they  do  with  the  spiritual  world,  may  be  awak- 
ened into  astonishing  activity.  A  man  may  see, 
hear,  feel,  and  think,  far  more  keenly  when  he 
seems  asleep  or  dead  to  the  natural  eye,  than  he  can 
when  wide  awake.  He  may  become  clairvoyant  in 
that  state,  and  see  through  all  intervening  obsta- 
cles. He  may  be  filled  with  ideas  and  conceptions, 
which  are  evidently  not  his  own.  He  may  dis- 
course fluently  and  learnedly  on  the  most  abstruse 


CAN   WE  COMMUNICATE?  205 

subjects,  even  in  languages  with  which,  when  not 
asleep,  he  is  totally  unacquainted.  He  may  dictate 
philosophical  lectures  or  epic  poems  at  a  single  sit- 
ting, and  not  be  able  to  write  a  similar  line  of 
cither  when  awake.  When  roused  from  his  brief 
trance,  he  remembers  nothing  of  what  he  has  said 
or  seen.  The  curtain  falls  upon  his  inner  life,  and 
he  seems  to  live  only  in  nature. 

These  things,  and  a  thousand  others  of  the  same 
sort,  verified  over  and  over,  illustrate  some  of  the 
laws  of  that  spiritual  life  into  which  we  all  awaken 
from  the  short  and  pleasant  sleep  of  death.  They 
are  totally  unsolvable  by  the  materialistic  philos- 
ophy, and  are  regarded  as  chimeras  or  hallucina- 
tions by  those  who  cannot  explain  the  facts  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  favorite  theories.  They  con- 
firm the  psychological  doctrines  of  Swedenborg, 
a;  d  receive  from  them  at  the  same  time  their  best 
explanation. 

It  is  in  this  world  within  our  world ;  this  spir- 
it lal  Valley  of  Rasselas,  walled  in  by  great  moun- 
tains from  our  common  perceptions ;  this  fairy-land 
of  the  soul,  invisible  to  our  mortal  eyes ;  it  is  here 
that  spirit  meets  spirit ;  it  is-  here  that  the  minis- 
trations of  angels  and  good  spirits  take  place,  and 
the  mystical  process  of  regeneration  occurs.  No 

18 


206  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

sweet  Egeria  of  that  spiritual  sphere  may  become 
visible  in  our  dim  grottoes,  and  impart  to  us 
that  knowledge  which  is  immortal  food.  The 
secret  commimings  of  our  ethereal  friends  may  be 
recognized  by  us  only  in  the  shape  of  whispers  or 
dreams,  or  in  the  still  more  subtile  forms  of  a  re- 
newed hope,  a  nourished  faith,  a  happier  resigna- 
tion, or  a  brighter  joy  ! 

It  is  unquestionable  that  different  orders  and 
classes  of  glorious  beings  accompany  us  in  all  our 
changes  of  state  or  place.  Some  are  the  guardians 
of  our  sleep,  and  some  of  our  labors.  Some  assist 
in  our  devotions,  and  others  give  zest  to  our  inno- 
cent pleasures.  They  partake  something  also  of 
our  joys  and  our  sorrows.  They  wait  on  all  alike; 
on  the  savage  and  the  sage;  on  the  child  bounding 
forth  from  their  celestial  sphere,  and  on  the  old 
man  tottering  back  to  their  embrace.  They  sense 
our  evil  thoughts,  and  withdraw  as  at  the  hiss  of 
serpents.  They  perceive  our  humility  and  our 
prayers,  and  they  advance,  attracted  by  a  perfume 
as  of  violets  and  roses. 

"Little  infants  are  sometimes  sent  from  heaven," 
says  Swedenborg,  "to  little  infants  upon  earth,  who 
are  affected  thereby  with  ecstatic  delight."  What 
pearl  of  more  exquisite  beauty  than  that  thought 


CAN   WE   COMMUNICATE?  207 

ever  dropped  from  the  singing  lips  of  poet  on 
earth !  Perhaps  our  little  ones  also,  when  they 
look  so  brightly  into  the  air,  and  leap  with  such 
strange  gladness  in  our  arms,  behold  little  babes 
more  beautiful  than  themselves,  kissing  them  re- 
cognition through  haloes  of  golden  light. 

Our  spirit-friends  frequently  come  to  us  with 
warning,  advising,  or  encouraging  dreams. 

Dreams,  so  vague,  so  fantastic,  so  volatile ! 
what  are  they  but  shifting  scenes  in  the  kaleido- 
scope of  memory,  ignes  fatui  of  thought  floating 
up  from  the  senseless  and  sleeping  body  ?  Who 
knows  or  believes  anything  of  the  symbolic  wis- 
dom they  may  contain?  That  symbolic  wisdom  is 
so  utterly  lost  to  mankind,  that  the  silly  dream- 
books  of  the  fortune-teller  are  all  that  remain  of 
its  glory,  like  some  broken  and  tarnished  marble 
from  a  temple  of  Persepolis. 

Dreams  are  generally  so  senseless  or  incredible, 
that  the  word  dreamer  is  a  term  of  reproach.  And 
yet  all  the  poets  and  prophets  of  the  world  have 
been  dreamers.  The  advanced  and  pivotal  men  of 
all  ages  and  countries  have  delivered  their  utter- 
ances in  a  state  of  high  trance  to  the  uncompre- 
hending multitudes.  In  this  sense  Swedenborg 
was  the  prince  of  dreamers.  And  although  the 


208  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

dreamer  of  one  age  is  the  oracle  of  the  next,  the 
same  thing  perpetually  occurs.  The  sensual- 
minded  brethren  of  every  new  Joseph,  when  they 
see  him  afar  off,  exclaim  to  each  other :  "  Behold ! 
this  dreamer  cometh." 

The  dream-world  is  a  picture-world,  built  up  ac- 
cording to  the  same  laws  of  correspondence  which 
govern  the  real  worlds  surrounding  men  and  spirits. 
The  law  of  symbolism  is  universal.  The  external 
always  represents  some  unseen  internal.  Angels  in 
one  heaven  can  watch  the  beautiful  clouds  in  their 
sky,  ever  shifting  in  form  and  color,  and  read  in 
their  changes  the  variations  of  thought  and  affec- 
tion of  the  angels  in  the  heaven  above  them.  This 
fact,  transmitted  to  posterity  and  lost  or  perverted 
in  its  meaning,  was  the  basis  of  ancient  augury, 
which  was  a  means  of  predicting  the  future  from 
the  flight  of  birds,  the  movements  of  clouds  and 
winds,  and  other  external  phenomena. 

This  repetition,  under  symbolic  images  in  a  lower 
sphere  and  by  different  forms,  of  what  is  transacting 
in  a  higher,  is  as  true  of  our  world  as  of  any  other. 
Every  object  in  nature  has  something  spiritual  con- 
cealed within  it;  every  flower  has  some  thought  of 
ethereal  beauty  as  the  cause  of  its  existence.  This 
great  truth,  patent  to  all  in  the  spiritual  spheres, 


CAN    WE   COMMUNICATE?  209 

and  to  the  inhabitants  of  sinless  worlds,  has  been 
lost  to  our  common  perception,  and  is  discovered 
only  by  the  poetic  faculty.  The  "sermons  in 
stones"  and  the  "books  in  the  running  brooks," 
are  not  imaginary  but  real.  The  sounding  cat- 
aract, which  haunts  the  poet  "  like  a  passion,'7 
and  the  little  violet,  half  concealing  its  modest 
face  behind  mossy  stones,  have  living,  spiritual 
voices  within  them,  which  have  reached  the  poet's 
ear  and  touched  his  open  heart  with  wonder  and 

j°y- 

The  dreams .  recorded  in  the  Bible  illustrate  the 
symbolic  character  of  dreamsfgenerally,  being  always 
representative  of  interior  and  spiritual  things. 
Swedenborg  says  that  the  men  of  the  golden  age 
were  visited  by  the  most  charming  dreams  from 
heaven,  by  which  they  were  not  only  delighted,  but 
greatly  instructed,  because  they  perceived  intu- 
itively the  meaning  involved  in  the  minutest  cir- 
cumstance of  the  visions.  In  later  ages  they  not 
only  lost  the  secret  key  to  their  dreams,  but  by  the 
increasing  influx  of  evil  spirits  they  began  to  have 
false,  evil,  and  fantastic  dreams.  Finally,  when 
the  interiors  were  closed,  and  man  became  merely 
sensual,  the  dream  degenerated  into  the  present 
confused  and  unintelligible  thing,  a  mere  cobweb, 

18  * 


210  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

in  which  fancy  and  memory  are  buzzing  like  en- 
tangled flies. 

In  the  restoration  of  all  things,  when  the  aggre- 
gate human  mind  is  reduced  to  states  of  perfect 
order  and  beauty,  the  dream  will  recover  its  old 
power  and  significance  as  a  most  beautiful  and 
charming  mode  of  communication  between  the 
higher  and  lower  spheres  of  existence.  One  of  the 
blessings  promised  to  the  crowned  and  perfected 
Church  is,  that  "  the  old  men  shall  dream  dreams, 
and  the  young  men  shall  see  visions." 

Swedenborg  describes  clearly  and  from  frequent 
experience  the  manner  in  which  the  conversation 
of  angels  or  spirits,  who  are  present  with  a  man 
in  sleep,  are  turned  into  dreams  of  persons,  things, 
or  events,  perfectly  representative  of  the  subject  of 
discourse.  Sometimes  the  simplest,  most  trivial 
dreams  are  the  outward  expressions  of  wonderful 
spiritual  communications.  Our  external  memory 
treasures  the  mere  dream ;  our  internal  or  spiritual 
memory  stores  away  its  spiritual  significance.  Our 
best  dreams,  those  productive  of  the  profoundest 
influence  on  our  souls,  may  not  come  so  far  forth 
into  the  external  memory  as  to  be  remembered  in 
-our  waking  state. 

We  adduce,  as  an  example  of  the  warning  drearn, 


CAN   WE  COMMUNICATE?  211 

one  which  occurred  to  a  New  Churchman,  who  had 
been  plunged  into  a  state  of  dreadful  darkness  and 
despair  by  the  loss  of  two  beautiful  children.  He 
of  course  understood  the  correspondences  contained 
in  the  vision ;  and  it  haunted  him  like  a  living 
presence  until  he  was  delivered  by  Divine  Provi- 
dence from  his  temptations.  It  is  given  in  his 
own  words : 

"  I  saw  in  my  dream  a  tall,  black,  hairy  man, 
with  features  like  an  ape,  ascending  from  a  dark 
place  which  seemed  very  full  of  rocks.  He  carried 
a  great  knotted  staff  in  his  hand,  longer  than  him- 
self, reaching  above  his  head.  This  strange  figure 
looked  eagerly  around  as  if  searching  for  some  one. 
His  physiognomy,  exceedingly  repulsive,  was  now 
somewhat  softened  by  an  air  of  anxious  curiosity, 
almost  of  tenderness.  He  expected  to  meet  his 
little  children.  Death  had  torn  them  from  him, 
and  left  him  bleeding  and  stumbling  in  this  dark 
world  of  sin.  Now  he  also  was  a  spirit.  The 
good  Lord  had  permitted  these  near  akin  but  sepa- 
rated souls,  ( so  near  and  yet  so  far/  to  greet  each 
other  once  more.  The  poor  father  will  see  his  dear 
little  children — his  jewels — his  idols — again !  What 
happiness ! 

"Very  soon,  descending  from  a  luminous  circle 


212  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

in  the  east,  came  forward  along  a  green  slope  two 
children  hand-in-hand,  a  little  boy  and  a  little  girl. 
Radiant  as  angels,  beautiful  as  dreams,  they  floated 
rather  than  walked  over  the  ground.  They  peered 
with  bright  loving  eyes  and  eager  shining  faces 
into  the  dusky  atmosphere  which  surrounded  the 
strange  man.  Their  little  hearts  palpitated  with 
joy.  They  were  about  to  meet  their  '  papa/  whonf 
they  had  left  weeping  over  their  little  dying  bodies 
— dying  in  the  same  week !  In  their  tender  imagina- 
tions their  i  dear  papa7  was  so  young,  so  handsome, 
such  a  glorious  Apollo !  Ah,  my  God !  What 
children !  What  a  father ! 

"The  parties,  so  anxiously  anticipating  this  meet- 
ing, approach.  They  see  each  other  and  stop.  The 
dark,  hairy  man,  an  ape  in  the  light  of  heaven, 
letting  fall  his  rough  staff,  throws  his  hands  up 
into  the  air,  exclaiming  with  wild  delight :  '  My 
children  !  My  children  F  The  little  ones  survey 
him  with  pale  faces  and  stupefied  air.  They  cling 
more  closely  to  each  other ;  they  tremble ;  they  cry 
out  in  one  breath :  'It  is  not  my  papa  !  No — no — 
no !  It  is  not  my  papa  F  They  turn  away  ;  they 
fly  with  trepidation  up  the  green  slope.  One  sweet 
little  voice,  half  weeping,  dies  away  in  the  distance: 
'  Not  my  papa  F 


CAN   WE   COMMUNICATE?  213 

"The  wretched  father,  wildly  excited,  pursues 
them.  'Come  back,  my  children !  It  is  I!  It  is 
I,  your  own  papa !  Oh,  come  back,  my  children !' 
The  dark  rocks  on  either  hand  respond  in  mockery : 
'  My  children !?  Suddenly  the  little  creatures,  very 
much  affrighted,  turn  into  two  beautiful  white 
Doves.  They  fly  with  swift-beating  wings  towards 
the  auroral  windows  of  the  east.  The  miserable 
father  stops  astonished.  He  gazes  after  them,  bent 
eagerly  forward.  What  an  attitude !  what  a  face ! 
He  watches  them  intently,  until  they  become  two 
little  silver  specks  fading  into  the  background  of 
golden  light.  Then  all  darkens  around  him,  and 
he  raises  a  great  shriek  of  agony :  ( They  are 
Angels ;  they  are  Angels :  and  I  am  a  Lost 
Spirit !' 

"The  earth  yawned,  and  the  strange  man  fell 
into  the  pit,  the  dark  rocks  tumbling  after  him. 

"  I  awoke,  cold,  suffocated,  trembling,  weeping. 

"  I  had  reason.     The  Lost  Spirit  was  myself!7' 

There  are  two  still  more  subtile  and  powerful 
means  of  secret  communication  with  our  lost  friends, 
unknown  to  men  or  discredited  by  them  because 
they  are  not  recognized  by  our  external  conscious- 
ness. The  first  is  effected  by  the  Word  of  God 
when  it  is  read  simultaneously  by  the  two  parties, 


214  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

the  one  on  earth  understanding  it  literally  it  may 
be,  the  other  in  heaven  understanding  it  in  a  spir- 
itual manner.  The  second  means  is  a  closer  unition 
of  our  interior  souls  by  similar  progressions  in  the 
great  work  of  regeneration. 

The  Holy  Bible  is  a  wonderful  link  or  bond  of 
union  between  human  thought  and  angelic  thought, 
and  so  between  heaven  and  earth.  It  exists  in 
both  worlds,  and  is  far  more  constantly,  reverently, 
and  fruitfully  studied  by  angels  than  by  men.  In 
that  heavenly  Bible  there  is  not  one  word  of  Abra- 
ham or  Isaac  or  Jacob,  of  David  or  John,  of  Egypt 
or  Canaan,  or  of  any  historical  event  that  has  ever 
occurred;  but  in  their  places  the  spiritual  truths 
of  the  Lord's  Kingdom,  -which  those  names  and 
occurrences  represented. 

When  a  person  upon  earth  reads  the  Bible  in  a 
prayerful  and  reverential  spirit,  the  angels  come 
very  much  nearer  to  him,  because  they  are  drawn 
or  attracted  by  the  beautiful  spiritual  truths  which 
are  contained  jn  the  letter.  This  is  the  secret  of 
the  vast  influence  of  the  Bible  upon  the  world  and 
upon  the  individual  heart  of  man.  When  angelic 
thought  is  thus  brought  into  rapport  with  human 
thought,  angelic  affections  excite  or  arouse  into  ac- 
tivity the  little  germs  of  similar  affections  existing 


CAN   WE   COMMUNICATE?  215 

in  man.  In  all  this  the  Lord  works  unseen,  Him- 
self the  Source  of  all  life  and  love.  Hence  the 
noble  virtues  and  charming  graces  of  the  Christian 
character !  Hence  the  faith  that  survives  criticism 
and  defies  extinction  !  Hence  the  love  which  out- 
grows its  earthly  bonds,  and  is  liberated  at  death 
for  measureless  expansion ! 

Yes,  dear  Parent !  believe  it.  When  you  sit  in 
your  quiet  chamber,  the  scene  perhaps  of  so  much 
suffering  and  sorrow,  and  in  the  soft  light  of  a 
Sabbath  evening  read  the  sweet  stories  of  Moses 
and  Joseph  and  Samuel,  or  the  wonderful  history 
of  the  birth  and  childhood  of  Jesus;  when  you 
awake  the  soft  minor  strains  of  the  Psalmist,  or 
the  solemn  organ-tones  of  the  Prophets,  or  the 
mighty  voices  and  thunderings  of  the  Apocalypse ; 
your  Little  Ones  will  come  very  near  to  you,  like 
invisible  doves  hovering  about  your  shoulders  with 
olive-branches  in  their  mouths.  A  subtile  power 
will  pass  from  them  into  your  own  soul ;  and  if 
you  could  see  the  new  life,  the  new  love,  the  new 
faith  imparted,  as  you  will  one  day  feel  them,  you 
would  exclaim  with  Jacob  awaking  from  his  dream : 
"  This  is  none  other  but  the  house  of  God,  and  this 
is  the  gate  of  heaven. " 

The  best  and  surest  method  of  communication, 


216  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

for  it  leads  to  eternal  union,  is  to  grow  more  and 
more  like  our  children.  Similarity  of  character  is 
the  bond  of  association  in  the  life  to  come.  Your 
nearest  neighbors  there  are  those  most  like  your- 
self. All  the  members  of  each  angelic  society 
think  alike  and  feel  alike,  with  none  but  harmonic 
differences.  They  are  conjoined  together  by  secret 
spiritual  affinities  on  the  principle  of  use,  like  the 
various  organs,  tissues,  and  minutest  cells  of  the 
human  body. 

While  living  here  upon  earth,  our  spirits  are 
really  traveling  from  society  to  society  in  the  spir- 
itual world.  The  man  who  was  avaricious  once, 
but  is  generous  now;  the  man  who  has  passed  from 
intemperate  to  abstinent  habits ;  the  man  who  has 
put  the  demon  of  licentiousness  under  his  feet;  all 
have  changed  their  locations  in  the  spiritual  world, 
so  that  the  spirits  who  knew  them  once,  now  know 
them  no  more.  We  do  not  see  these  spiritual 
routes  we  are  taking,  for  the  Lord's  providence 
leads  us  by  ways  unknown ;  but  they  are  as  real  as 
any  earthly  journeys  by  land  or  water. 

We  are  traveling  every  day  to  or  from  our  be- 
loved ones.  Spirits  of  the  same  family  and  blood 
arc  specially  drawn  to  each  other  by  secret  ties  and 
attractions,  and  the  good  of  many  generations  are 


CAN   WE  COMMUNICATE f  217 

frequently  collected  together  in  sweet  companion- 
ship and  in  the  same  heavenly  society.  It  is  the 
Lord's  good  will  that  we  shall  rejoin  our  dear  ones, 
and  his  loving-kindness  is  ever  striving  to  lead  us 
together.  For  this  purpose  He  would  keep  ever 
before  our  spiritual  eyes  the  little  wicket  gate, 
shining  like  a  star,  which  leads  through  the  Valley 
of  Humiliation  to  the  green  pastures  and  placid 
waters  of  the  happy  country  of  the  Good  Shep- 
herd. 

Our  departed  friends  are  undergoing  a  continual 
process  of  purification.  They  are  becoming  more 
and  more  heavenly,  less  and  less  earthly.  They 
are  casting  off  for  ever  the  lusts  and  errors  of  this 
world,  the  pride  and  selfishness,  even  the  petulance, 
the  obstinacy,  the  conceitedness,  the  little  imperfec- 
tions of  our  characters.  They  are  moving  toward 
the  great  and  beautiful  ideals  of  angelic  life.  They 
are  being  transfigured  in  every  feature  and  gesture 
by  spiritual  processes,  and  their  faces  are  beginning 
to  shine  like  that  of  Moses  when  he  conversed 
with  God  on  Sinai. 

Bereaved  and  sorrowing  ones !  is  it  so  with  us  ? 
Are  we  dropping  the  old  states  of  our  sensual  life, 
as  a  tree  sheds  its  leaves  ?  Are  we  conscious  of  a 
steady  spiritual  transformation  within  ourselves? 

19  K 


218  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

Are  we  following  the  track  of  those  over  whom  we 
wept  so  bitterly?  Do  we  keep  them  ever  in  sight? 
Or  are  we  living  in  sensual  pleasures,  with  no  high 
and  holy  aspirations,  but  turning  continually  to 
self  and  the  world  ?  If  so,  we  are  becoming  more 
and  more  unlike  those  we  loved  so  tenderly.  A 
chasm  is  yawning  between  us,  dark  and  deep ;  a 
chasm  of  spiritual  repulsions  and  antipathies,  which 
will  widen  and  widen  until  it  becomes  the  Impass- 
able Gulf. 

Awful  thoughts  !  That  we  may  become  so  evil 
that  we  will  never  see  our  children  again !  That 
they  may  become  so  pure,  that  no  memories  of  us 
shall  ever  visit  their  happy  spirits,  "coming,  like 
ghosts,  to  trouble  joy !"  That  the  few  years  of 
earth-life,  when  parent  and  child  were  bound  heart 
to  heart — the  few  years  so  happy,  so  loved,  so  wept, 
may  sink  into  eternal  oblivion  and  be  lost,  like  a 
pearl  fallen  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea ! 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT? 

MANY  years  ago,  when  a  terrible  epidemic 
was  desolating  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  a 
poor  fellow  who  had  led  a  reckless,  irreligious  life, 
was  about  giving  it  up  to  the  great  destroyer.  All 
hope  was  gone:  his  physician  had  retired.  An 
old  nurse  and  a  solitary  friend,  wearied  with  night- 
watching,  were  dozing  at  the  bed-side,  waiting  for 
the  patient  to  breathe  his  last.  The  sick  man, 
although  retaining  his  senses,  lay  in  that  torpid 
and  indifferent  state  which  sometimes  precedes 
death. 

A  kind-hearted  clergyman  on  his  morning  round 
of  benevolent  visitation,  stepped  into  the  room, 
startling  the  sleepers  into  watchfulness  again.  He 
knew  the  circumstances  and  character  of  the  dying 
man,  and  addressed  him  immediately  to  the  point. 

"  My  dear  friend,"  he  said,  "  you  have  lived  a 
wicked  and  sinful  life,  and  are  now  about  to  ap- 

219 


220  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

pear,  unprepared  I  am  afraid,  before  the  Judge  of 
the  whole  earth.  I  feel  warranted,  however,  in 
making  to  you,  in  the  name  of  our  Saviour,  a  last 
appeal.  He  who  heard  the  prayer  of  the  penitent 
thief,  is  ready  to  answer  yours  also,  if  you  make  it 
in  the  proper  spirit." 

The  sick  man  slowly  turned  his  bronzed  face 
and  bloodshot  eyes  on  the  speaker,  but  said 
nothing. 

The  preacher  continued : 

"You  have  but  little  time  left  for  preparation. 
Do  not  waste  it  on  idle  memories  of  the  past  or 
useless  speculations  about  the  future.  Address 
yourself  earnestly  to  the  throne  of  grace.  The 
divine  sympathy  may  yet  be  aroused  in  your 
behalf.  Let  me  pray  for  you  and  with  you !" 

There  was  no  answer. 

"  Are  you  not  afraid  to  meet  your  God,"  said  the 
clergyman,  with  a  little  determination  in  his  tone. 

"  Oh  no !"  muttered  the  dying  man,  very  slowly 
but  with  some  emphasis,  "  not  at  all  afraid  to  meet 
my  God." 

"  On  what,  pray,  sir !  do  you  base  your  hope  of 
salvation?  Your  answer,  permit  me  to  say,  smacks 
of  irreverent  presumption.  Remember  that  you 
have  been  a  man  without  God  and  without  religion 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT?         221 

in  this  world.     What  is  there  to  support  you  in 
the  hour  of  death  ?" 

"  I  have  had  a  religion,  and  a  very  good  one/' 
muttered  the  other,  as  if  talking  to  himself. 

Then  suddenly  starting  up  on  his  elbow,  he  ex- 
claimed with  surprising  energy  and  intelligence: 

"Listen,  sir!  I  thank  you  for  your  kind  feel- 
ings and  your  good  intentions;  but  really  I  need 
none  of  your  offices.  Many  years  ago,  when  I  was 
a  little  boy,  I  attended  a  Sunday-school  in  my 
native  village  in  the  State  of  New  York." 

He  paused  and  gazed  into  vacancy,  half-smiling, 
as  if  some  sweet  memories  had  suddenly  broken  in 
upon  him.  The  clergyman  moved  a  step  nearer  to 
him,  and  he  continued : 

"Behind  the  leader's  desk  was  a  golden  sun 
painted  upon  the  wall,  with  these  words  in  its 
centre : 

"  '  GOD  is  LOVE/ 

That  picture  sank  into  my  boy's  heart,  and  I  have 
seen  it  ever  since. — I  see  it  now. — That  is  my 
religion. — That  is  my  God." 

He  sank  exhausted  on  his  pillow.  The  kind 
minister  forebore  to  press  his  gospel  invitation,  and 
looked  on  in  pitying  silence. 

19* 


222  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

The  dying  man  bent  his  head  far  back,  looking 
directly  upwards,  and  muttered  faintly  as  if  still 
answering  the  clergyman's  question : 

"  Oh  no !  sir.  I  may  be  afraid  of  man,  but  I 
am  not,  cannot  be,  afraid  of  God." 

The  speaker  was  expiring. 

The  minister  lifted  his  eyes  deprecatingly  and 
turned  away.  He  heard  the  death-rattle  ere  he 
reached  the  door.  If  his  spiritual  eyes  had  been 
opened  at  that  moment,  he  would  have  seen  shining 
visitors  crowding  about  the  dying  sinner. 

What  visitors  ? 

The  angels  of  the  resurrection ! 

This  little  anecdote  is  given,  not  to  encourage 
any  false  hopes  of  a  happy  future  after  an  evil  life, 
but  as  a  forcible  expression  of  the  great  central 
truth  of  religion,  that  the  Lord  is  a  being  of  infin- 
ite and  perfect  love  and  mercy.  The  law  of  the 
Divine  Love  is  the  "higher  law"  of  the  spiritual 
universe — yea,  the  Highest  Law,  which  overrules 
and  determines  all  others.  It  is  the  all-pervading 
element  of  a  pure  faith,  and  must  dominate  the 
intellect  without  any  qualifying  clause.  Every 
seeming  law  or  statement  which  is  inconsistent  with 
a  perfect  conception  of  the  law  of  Divine  Love,  is 
either  false  in  itself,  or  is  some  truth  perverted  and 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LOUD   PEE  VENT?        223 

corrupted  in  its  passage  through  the  disorderly  or 
incapable  mind  of  man. 

A  piece  of  ice  seems  to  our  senses  utterly  desti- 
tute of  heat.  It  has  other  properties  and  exhibits 
the  operation  of  other  laws,  mechanical,  chemical, 
optical,  and  electrical.  Still  the  law  of  Heat  is  the 
fundamental  law  of  its  existence  and  form.  Modify 
its  relation  to  Heat,  and  all  its  phenomena — as 
light,  shape,  color,  cohesion,  chemical  and  electri- 
cal powers — are  so  changed  that  its  identity  cannot 
be  recognized.  So  the  Divine  Love  is  the  essential 
life  of  the  universe,  and  its  reception  by  created 
forms  determines  the  spiritual  and  natural  qualities 
they  manifest.  There  is  no  object  or  person  or 
place  or  state  in  which  this  supreme  law,  God 
is  Love,  does  not  reign  over  all  things,  in  spite  of 
appearances  to  the  contrary. 

We  will  take  this  little  text  with  us  from  the 
walls  of  the  village  Sunday-school,  and  it  shall  be 
our  guiding  star  through  all  imaginable  darknesses 
and  perplexities.  When  men  deny  God,  or  accuse 
Him  falsely,  because  there  is  disorder  and  sickness 
in  the  world,  and  horrible  crimes  and  sufferings, 
and  ages  of  barbarism  and  slavery ;  we  answer  in 
the  face  of  all  this  evil — God  is  Love.  He  caused 
none  of  it  and  is  responsible  for  none  of  it.  He 


224  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

resists  it  continually;  He  never,  never  permits  it 
when  He  can  prevent  it;  He  educes  good  from  it 
always;  and  He  will  subdue  it  eventually. 

When  we  look  into  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  see 
that  God  is  said  to  tempt  men  to  acts  of  disobe- 
dience; to  harden  their  hearts  and  then  destroy 
them ;  to  do  great  works  and  then  repent  of  hav- 
ing done  them ;  to  be  wrathful  against  his  enemies ; 
to  command  one  nation  to  exterminate  another;  to 
give  us  blessings  and  then  take  them  away;  to 
laugh  at  our  calamities  and  to  mock  at  our  fear; 
we  see  by  the  sweet  light  of  our  golden  text,  that 
these  are  fallacies,  the  mere  sensuous  appearances 
of  the  letter  unconnected  by  the  light  of  spiritual 
interpretation.  We  know  in  our  inmost  hearts 
that  God  never  changes,  never  tempts,  is  never 
angry,  never  punishes,  never  gives  and  then  takes 
away. 

We  may  penetrate  even  into  hell  and  see  myriads 
of  evil  spirits  living  in  states  far  lower,  more 
bestial  and  painful  than  our  saddest  types  of 
Indian  or  African  or  Australian  barbarism.  We 
may  discover  in  that  doleful  region  wickedness  and 
its  attendant  suffering,  in  comparison  with  which 
all  our  crimes  and  sorrows  are  but  the  seed  in  pro- 
portion to  the  harvest;  and  still  our  motto,  God  is 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT?        225 

Love,  shines  as  sweetly  and  softly  in  those  lurid 
atmospheres  as  in  the  azure  skies  of  heaven.  The 
Love  of  God  is  there  also,  not  to  punish  or  destroy, 
but  to  maintain  order,  to  protect,  to  sustain,  to 
alleviate,  to  amend,  and,  so  far  as  may  be  possible, 
to  reclaim. 

God  creates  man,  not  for  his  glory  and  a  display 
of  his  power,  but  from  his  boundless  love,  yearning 
to  give  Himself  away,  as  it  were,  in  innumerable 
forms  of  life  and  beauty,  to  an  ever-increasing 
multitude  which  no  man  can  number,  of  good, 
wise,  and  happy  beings  capable  of  receiving  and 
reciprocating  that  love.  Behold  there  a  motive 
worthy  of  a  God !  His  will  is,  that  all  should  be 
good  and  wise  and  happy  and  perfect  in  their 
spheres.  His  will  is,  that  blessings  and  riches  and 
honors  should  be  showered  upon  every  head ;  and 
that  every  path  should  be  strewn  with  flowers 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  His  will  is,  that 
there  should  be  no  pain  or  sickness,  and  no  removal 
from  earth  until  man  attains  the  ripeness  and  full- 
ness of  natural  life,  that  serene  old  age  of  this 
world  which  hardly  conceals  the  radiant  youthfulness 
of  the  next.  His  will  is,  to  flood  every  human 
heart  with  the  fullest  tides  of  love,  peace,  beauty, 
and  joy ! 

K  * 


226  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

"Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  on 
Earth  as  it  is  in  Heaven  P* 

Whenever  and  wherever  these  things  are  not 
found,  but  their  opposites  appear — evil,  falsity, 
poverty,  pain,  crime,  and  early  death;  we  may  rest 
perfectly  assured  that  the  will  of  God  has  not  been 
done.  Some  Evil  One  hath  sown  tares  among  the 
wheat.  Some  discord  has  crept  into  the  music  of 
the  spheres.  Who  has  thwarted  the  will  of  the 
Omnipotent.  The  questions,  how? — when? — 
wherefore?  crowd  upon  us.  We  are  oppressed 
with  a  sense  of  mystery.  Doubts  and  despairs  like 
clouds  spread  over  the  whole  heaven.  The  Uni- 
verse becomes  a  riddle;  the  Word  of  God  a  closed 
Book,  sealed  with  seven  seals ;  and  like  the  beloved 
Apostle,  the  bewildered  Christian  "weeps  much, 
that  no  man  can  break  the  seals  and  open  the  Book 
and  read  therein." 

One  of  the  Elders  before  the  throne  said  to 
John: 

"Weep  not!  Behold!  the  Lion  of  the  Tribe  of 
Judah,  the  Root  of  David,  hath  prevailed  to  open 
the  Book  and  to  loose  the  seven  seals  thereof." 

What  the  Apostle  saw  in  vision  is  now  passing 
into  history.  This  opening  of  the  Book,  celebrated 
by  the  glorifications  of  angels  to  the  number  of 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT?         227 

"  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  and  thousands 
of  thousands,"  is  the  same  event  as  the  Second 
Coming  of  the  Lord,  not  bodily  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven,  but  with  spiritual  and  angelic  light  and 
glory  into  the  dark  clouds  of  the  Letter  of  the 
Word.  This  Revelation  of  the  Spiritual  Sense  of 
the  Holy  Scripture  has  been  made  in  these  latter 
days  through  an  Illuminated  Medium;  and  it  con- 
tains a  new  philosophy,  a  new  psychology,  a  new 
theology,  for  the  use  of  a  New  Church,  the  New 
Jerusalem ;  in  which  heaven  and  earth — "  the  new 
heaven  and  the  new  earth" — shall  be  once  more 
and  for  ever  united. 

He  has  come  as  He  predicted,  "  like  a  thief  in 
the  night;"  and  has  found  but  little  faith  on  the 
earth.  He  walks  along  the  wayside  with  those 
who  love  Him  best  and  seek  Him  most,  explaining 
from  Moses  and  the  Prophets  what  was  written  of 
Himself;  but  their  eyes  are  holden  and  they  do 
not  know  Him. 

The  Doctrine  of  the  Lord  which  the  Spiritual 
Sense  teaches,  is  the  true  doctrine,  rising  above  the 
appearances  of  the  Letter,  and  the  mist  and  falla- 
cies of  merely  natural  thought.  Philosophy  or 
Religion  without  a  true  knowledge  of  God,  is  a 
body  without  a  heart,  a  nation  without  a  head,  a 


228  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

world  without  a  sun.  Our  conception  of  God  is 
the  eye  through  which  we  see  everything. 

"If  therefore  thine  eye  be  single,  thy  whole 
body  shall  be  full  of  light.  But  if  thine  eye  be 
evil,  thy  whole  body  shall  be  full  of  darkness." 

What,  then,  is  the  conception  of  God,  from 
which,  as  from  a  very  high  spiritual  mountain, 
we  may  look  down  into  the  causes  of  things,  see  the 
origin  and  uses  of  evil,  and  why  the  Lord  does  not 
prevent  it  ? 

The  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  his  risen  and  glorified 
Human  Form,  is  the  Supreme  Being — the  Only 
God — one  in  essence  and  in  person.  Out  of  Him 
there  is  no  Father  and  no  Holy  Ghost.  What 
these  terms  express  are  mere  abstractions  apart 
from  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ;  they  are  hin- 
drances not  helps  to  a  true  knowledge  and  wor- 
ship of  Him.  This  Lord,  the  God-Man,  in  whom 
"  dwelleth  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily," 
is  the  uncreated  source  of  all  Life  and  Goodness. 
No  life  or  goodness- we  may  discover  in  man  is  ever 
self-originated,  but  always  derived  from  the  same 
central  Fountain.  "  There  is  none  good  but  God." 

This  Divine  Goodness  flows  down  and  presses  in 
and  pours  outward  in  living  streams,  causing  all 
the  life,  goodness,  peace,  joy,  wisdom,  beauty,  and 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT?        229 

excellence  in  the  world.  It  strives  to  communicate 
itself  to  all  alike,  to  the  evil  and  the  good ;  to 
create  a  heaven  in  every  human  heart,  thereby 
predestinating  and  willing  every  human  being  to 
have  a  place  in  heaven.  It  possesses  also  infinite 
Wisdom  to  conceive  and  plan,  and  infinite  Power 
to  execute  what  it  so  ardently  desires.  Surely  His 
will  shall  finally  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in 
heaven ! 

This  original,  holy,  beatific,  super-excellent  Ideal 
of  a  creation,  full  of  good  and  wise  beings,  prepar- 
ing on  happy  worlds  for  happier  heavens,  has  been 
broken  and  would  have  been  destroyed,  at  least  on 
this  earth,  but  for  His  own  Incarnation.  His 
Divine  Mind  and  Will,  however,  have  not  changed. 
He  still  strives  to  carry  out  his  original  plan  and  to 
realize  His  divine  ideal  of  universal  felicity  and 
salvation.  His  providence  labors  incessantly  to 
bring  the  world  and  every  individual  back  to  the 
state  of  divine  order  contemplated  from  the  be- 
ginning. No  change  in  His  finite  creatures  can 
ever  effect  any  change  in  Himself.  He  has  no 
anger;  no  impatience;  no  accusing  spirit;  no 
avenging  justice;  no  finite  qualifications  to  his 
infinite  and  unchangeable  love  and  pity.  He  gives, 
i,  gives ;  and  He  never  takes  away  anything 

20 


230  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

good  or  true  or  beautiful,  without  providing  some- 
thing better,  truer,  and  more  beautiful.  Such  is 
the  Lord  as  He  really  is  behind  the  clouds  of  sen- 
suous perception,  which  like  the  Letter  of  the 
Word  conceal  for  a  while  His  true  nature  and 
glory  from  us. 

The  rainbow-colors  are  as  beautiful  in  the  dew- 
drop  as  in  the  vaulted  sky.  Universal  Truths  are 
seen  alike  in  the  greatest  things  and  in  the  least ; 
in  the  extinction  of  a  sun  and  in  the  falling  of  a 
sparrow.  This  great  truth  of  the  Divine  Love 
must  come  home  to  every  human  heart,  and  to  the 
little  circumstances  of  our  daily  lives. 

Ah!  poor,  bereaved,  Christian  mother!  who 
knelt  so  humbly  at  His  feet,  and  wept  so  bitterly, 
and  prayed  so  fervently  that  your  precious  child — 
your  heart's  wealth — might  be  spared  to  you ;  and 
all  in  vain,  in  vain !  You  cannot  see  the  Divine 
Love  in  the  sun-colors  in  which  our  philosophy 
has  painted  it.  In  your  great  affliction  it  seemed 
to  you  that  the  Lord  was  far,  far  away ;  forgetful 
and  unmindful  of  your  sorrows;  delaying  to  come, 
as  he  did  to  Lazarus;  or  when  He  came,  shorn  of 
His  miraculous  power. 

Perhaps  your  stricken  soul,  bewildered  by  a 
terrible  theology,  imagined  even  that  He,  in  His 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD  Pit  EVENT?         231 

austere  wisdom — knowing  what,  though  cruel,  was 
best — summoned  from  their  awful  deeps  the  blood- 
hounds of  darkness,  and  set  them  upon  the  track 
of  your  innocent  and  helpless  one.  Your  only 
comfort  is  the  belief,  that  in  some  inscrutable 
manner  all  this  misery  was  necessary  and  proper 
for  your  final  salvation  and  the  child's.  In  the 
sweet  but  despairing  resignation  of  your  faith,  you 
struggle  to  exclaim — "  Thy  will  de  done !" 

Now  ascend  that  Spiritual  mountain  with  Peter 
and  James  and  John,  on  which  our  Lord  can 
always  be  seen  in  another  form  and  in  a  holier 
light.  In  your  sad  bereavement,  every  cruel  inci- 
dent of  which  you  so  vividly  remember,  the  Lord 
was  present,  resisting  every  step  of  the  process  by 
which  your  little  one  was  torn  from  you.  He  de- 
scended through  spiritual  atmospheres  and  through 
good  spiritsv  and  angels  into  your  very  chamber. 
So  far  as  He  could,  consistently  with  universal  laws, 
and  according  to  the  spiritual  forms  into  which  He 
was  obliged  to  flow,  He  inspired  your  physicians 
with  wisdom,  your  nurses  with  watchfulness,  your 
remedies  with  healing  virtues,  and  the  very  ele- 
ments around  you  with  conspiring  influences  in 
your  behalf.  Better  question  his  Omnipotence 
than  doubt  His  Love. 


232  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

We  seldom  realize  the  intensely  personal  relation 
which  God  endeavors  to  establish  with  our  hearts. 
To  the  intellect  He  is  the  supreme  Intelligence, 
creating  and  sustaining  the  Universe;  to  the  heart, 
He  is  the  sympathizing  Friend,  Father,  Saviour. 
We  know  Him  in  His  great  kingdom  without;  we 
can  love  Him  only  in  His  little  kingdom  within 
us.  It  is  His  boundless  love  for  our  children, 
which  we  receive  in  our  finite  spirits,  and  feel  as 
if  it  were  entirely  our  own.  Our  anxieties,  our 
temptations,  our  hopes,  our  aspirations  are  His 
also.  He  enters  into  and  clothes  Himself  with 
our  spiritual  infirmities  as  He  once  did  with  a 
material  body.  He  is  near  us  in  our  dark  hours, 
and  nearest  in  the  darkest.  He  contends  with  the 
Powers  of  Darkness  for  the  life  of  every  little  child, 
like  Michael  contending  with  the  devil  for  the 
body  of  Moses :  and  He  stands  in  tears  at  every 
little  grave,  as  He  stood  with  Mary  and  Martha 
at  the  grave  of  Lazarus. 

If  all  this  be  true,  why  do  our  children  die? 
If  God  is  a  Being  of  infinite  Love,  Wisdom  and 
Power,  why  does  He  permit  evil  to  invade  His 
dominion,  to  thwart  His  will,  to  defeat  His  plans, 
to  disorganize  His  world,  to  torture  and  destroy 
His  creatures,  and  to  endanger  the  peace  and  even 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT?         233 

the  existence  of  His  heavens?  Why  did  He  not 
ordain  it  otherwise?  Why  slumbers  His  justice? 
Where  is  the  proof  of  His  Omnipotence? 

Before  attempting  to  throw  some  new  light  on 
these  old  questions,  so  full  of  primeval  darkness 
and  difficulty,  it  will  be  necessary  to  show  why  the 
literal  sense  of  the  Bible  militates  against  our  view 
of  the  Divine  Love  and  Providence — for  the  Word 
of  God  is  our  sole  guide  in  doctrinal  matters. 
Why  is  God  there  described  as  a  jealous  God,  a 
Being  of  inexorable  justice,  who  is  angry  with  the 
sinner  every  day,  and  who  dooms  the  unrepentant 
to  an  eternal  hell?  Why  is  He  said  to  chasten 
those  He  loves,  to  afflict  them  for  their  good,  to 
give  and  to  take  away  from  them  at  his  unex- 
plained pleasure,  and  to  purify  them  as  by  fire? 
These  ideas  are  so  plainly  inculcated  in  the  letter, 
and  are  so  thoroughly  interwoven  into  the  doc- 
trines and  life  of  the  Christian  Church,  that  men 
cling  to  them  with  intense  affection  and  feel  that 
to  give  them  up,  is  to  give  up  the  Bible,  the 
Church,  and  even  the  Lord  Himself.  And  yet  it 
is  not  so.  There  is  a  better  way,  a  purer  light. 
The  Bible  has  a  Soul  also  which  lives  in  the  midst 
of  its  body. 

Every  jot  and  tittle  of  the  Holy  Scripture  exists 

20* 


234  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

in  heaven;  and  yet  not  one  word  of  the  letter,  as 
we  read  it,  can  enter  there.  We  leave  the  literal 
sense  behind  us  at  death,  just  as  we  leave  our 
natural  bodies;  and  we  enter  into  possession  of  the 
spiritual  sense.  That  spiritual  sense  has  now  been 
opened  for  us  by  the  Lord,  and  we  can  discover  the 
jewels  of  spiritual  truth  which  were  concealed  in 
so  plain  a  casket.  This  is  the  origin  of  the  new 
light  which  enables  us  to  correct  our  view  of  the 
Divine  nature. 

The  Bible  was  communicated  from  heaven  in  a 
sense  and  by  a  method  quite  unknown  to  the 
Christian  Church.  It  was  not  a  simple  dictation 
from  the  Lord  or  angels  to  chosen  men,  or  the  in- 
spired word  of  worthy  mediums  filled  with  the 
Divine  Spirit.  It  is  from  that  stand-point  the 
infidel  assails  it  so  successfully,  subjecting  the  terri- 
ble difficulties  of  the  letter  to  his  pitiless  criticism, 
and  mocking  at  its  divinity.  The  Word  exists  in 
heaven  as  a  glorious  coherent  body  of  spiritual 
truth ;  the  direct,  thought-giving  effluence  of  the 
Divine  Mind.  In  passing  through  the  minds  of 
the  medium — for  it  descended  by  an  internal 
way — it  took  on  a  human  vestment  from  their 
natural  thought,  limited  by  time,  place,  and  circum- 
stance; and  issued  forth  a  very  different  thing  in 


WHY  DTD  NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT?        235 

appearance  from  what  it  was  and  still  is  in  its 
heavenly  interiors. 

When  an  angel  speaks  to  man,  he  seems  to  speak 
in  the  man's  native  tongue,  whatever  that  may  be. 
The  angel  does  not  know  nor  can  he  utter  a  word 
of  human  language.  His  spiritual  ideas,  passing 
through  the  interiors  of  the  man's  mind,  take  on 
a  clothing  or  investment  from  the  man's  natural 
memory  of  words  before  they  are  presented  to  his 
own  consciousness.  So  the  Divine  Word  has 
clothed  itself  in  the  ideas  and  words  of  the 
Jewish  mind.  It  would  have  had  very  different 
histories,  prophecies,  poems,  all  with  precisely  the 
same  spiritual  sense,  if  some  other  nation  had  been 
selected  for  a  representative  church.  Passing 
through  the  Greek  mind,  it  would  have  assumed 
probably  a  far  more  artistic  and  philosophical 
shape.  The  Jews  were  chosen,  so  that  the  Word 
might  descend  in  accommodating  forms  to  the 
lowest  and  most  sensuous  phase  of  human  life  and 
thought.  Those  who  touch  "  even  the  hem  of  His 
garment"  are  saved. 

Spiritual  truths  flowing  through  a  human  mind 
derive  an  external  shape  or  form  from  the  pecu- 
liarities of  the  mental  structure.  The  extreme 
degree  of  deviation  or  perversion  occurs  when  a 


236  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

spiritual  truth  is  let  down  into  the  mind  of  a  de- 
mon, one  who  has  been  divested  of  all  goodness 
and  is  thoroughly  evil.  The  idea  is  then  turned 
into  its  exact  opposite.  This  experiment  was  re- 
peated several  times  for  Swedenborg's  instruction. 
All  falsities  are  thus  the  perversions  of  truths 
passing  through  disordered  minds.  A  perfect, 
symmetrical  Revelation  can  only  be  made  through 
angelic  minds,  whose  minutest  fibres  are  in  musical 
accord  with  the  breath  of  heaven.  No  spiritual 
truth  can  be  transmitted  through  human  mediums, 
without  losing  something  of  its  clearness,  power, 
and  beauty.  This  psychological  law  is  one  of  the 
keys  to  Biblical  interpretation. 

Our  ideas  of  God  depend  entirely  on  the  degree 
of  spiritual  light  into  which  we  can  be  elevated. 
In  one  state  we  see  Him  as  a  powerful  Being, 
jealous  of  His  glory,  rewarding  His  friends,  pun- 
ishing His  enemies,  and  demanding  an  eye  for  an 
eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth.  In  another  state  we 
see  Him  as  a  divided  Being,  His  justice  appearing 
to  us  under  one  form,  His  mercy  under  another, 
and  His  ministering  power  under  a  third.  In  a 
still  more  advanced  stage  of  development,  He 
appears  to  us  as  a  Divine  Man,  governing  with  in- 
finite wisdom  and  mercy  all  things  alike  in  heaven, 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT?        237 

earth,  and  hell.  What  seems  to  be  a  truth  from 
one  stand-point,  becomes  a  falsity  from  another. 

One  man  sees  God  in  a  little  image  of  wood 
or  stone — amazing  narrowness  and  darkness  of 
thought !  Even  that  conception  serves  to  keep  alive 
in  his  heart  the  feeble  germs  of  faith  and  venera- 
tion, and  is  better  than  no  idea  at  all.  Another, 
without  approaching  a  step  nearer  to  Him,  sees 
Him  in  the  glorious  mechanism  of  the  Universe, 
which,  abstracted  from  the  personal  Spirit  of  God, 
is  only  a  large  idol  or  fetich.  Many  of  us  know 
Him  only  as  a  mysterious  Power  wrestling  with 
our  souls,  as  the  angel  is  said  to  have  wrestled  with 
Jacob  in  the  dark.  Blind  and  unhappy  is  the 
man  who  can  look  around  and  within  and  not  see 
Him  at  all! 

In  the  race  as  in  the  individual,  the  first  stage  of 
mental  life  is  sensuous.  It  is  the  age  of  miracles 
and  not  of  reason.  It  is  only  the  preparation  of 
the  ground  for  future  growth.  Man  then  lives  in 
various  fallacies  of  thought  derived  from  sensuous 
appearances,  from  which  he  cannot  be  extricated 
but  as  the  chick  is  extricated  from  the  shell — by  a 
process  of  development.  For  him  the  sun  moves 
round  the  world;  ceremonies  are  the  essentials  of 
the  Church;  and  God  punishes  His  enemies  and 


238  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

rewards  His  friends  with  the  animus  of  an  earthly 
monarch.  Such  was  the  Jewish  Church;  and 
such  are  all  those  at  this  day  who  demand  miracles 
as  evidences  of  truth. 

The  race  and  the  church  as  well  as  the  individ- 
ual advance  next  to  a  rational  or  metaphysical 
stage,  retaining  a  great  deal  of  their  sensuous  faith, 
but  endeavoring  to  explain  and  justify  it  by  doctrinal 
dogmas.  The  great  difficulty  with  this  phase  of 
thought  is,  to  reconcile  the  spiritual  elements  of  the 
Old  Theology  with  the  rational  principles  of  the 
New  Science  continually  blossoming  into  view. 
The  history  of  opinion  here  proves  that  the  unil- 
lumined  reason  is  as  poor  a  guide  to  truth  as  the 
uninstructed  senses.  Such  was  the  Apostolic 
Church,  and  such  are  now  its  thousand  fragments. 

In  the  manhood  of  the  race,  of  the  church,  and 
of  the  individual,  the  critical  spirit  works  inces- 
santly to  free  itself  from  all  errors,  all  theories,  all 
masters;  and  to  get  at  the  positive  light  of  truth. 
This  positive  stage  of  thought  has  two  forms,  only 
one  of  which  was  foreseen  by  the  subtile  author  of 
the  Positive  Philosophy.  One  school  gets  rid  of  all 
our  sensuous  fallacies,  including  the  religious  intui- 
tions, and  of  all  our  transitional  metaphysics; 
bases  itself  on  pure  science;  and,  as  might  have 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LOUD  PREVENT?         239 

been  expected,  lives  in  nature  only,  like  a  sagacious 
beast.  The  Swedenborgian  School  extricates  itself 
entirely  from  the  past,  accepts  a  new  Revelation 
from  heaven,  and  makes  all  things  freshly  and 
eternally  positive  by  viewing  man,  nature,  science, 
history,  and  the  Written  Word  in  its  spiritual 
light.  The  Positive  Scientific  School  is  a  mere 
servant  or  vanguard,  preparing  the  way  by  its 
critical  and  destructive  energies  for  the  universal 
domination  of  the  Spiritual  Philosophy. 

Thus  we  see  that  it  was  organically  impossible 
for  the  earlier  ages  and  churches  to  have  had  cor- 
rect ideas  of  the  nature  of  God.  There  was  a 
series  of  false  doctrines  (called  by  Swedenborg 
apparent  truths,  because  they  appeared  true  from 
the  stand-point  of  the  believers,  and  were  accepted 
by  the  Lord  as  if  they  were  true)  permitted  to 
men,  just  as  polygamy  was  permitted  to  the  Jews 
on  account  of  "the  hardness  of  their  hearts." 
Every  sin,  it  has  been  said,  is  the  round  of  a 
ladder,  which,  if  trodden  under  foot,  leads  us  up- 
ward to  the  skies.  So  these  false  conceptions  and 
erroneous  opinions  of  the  Church  of  God  were  not 
to  be  lived  in,  but  lived  out  and  left  behind.  Thus 
only  can  we  advance  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  su- 
pernal light  of  genuine  or  spiritual  truth. 


240  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

Unless  the  Jews  had  been  permitted  to  entertain 
the  most  external  and  sensuous  ideas  of  God  and 
his  government,  they  would  have  had  no  idea  at 
all;  and  a  literal  Word,  bearing  its  true  meaning 
concealed  in  its  bosom,  could  not  have  been  re- 
vealed to  them.  Unless  man  had  been  permitted 
to  believe  in  a  terrible  hell  and  a  sensuous  heaven, 
he  could  never  have  been  imbued  with  a  spiritual 
aspiration.  Unless  he  had  been  permitted  to 
believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the  material  body,  he 
would  have  retained  no  faith  in  the  immortality  of 
the  soul.  Unless  he  had  been  permitted  to  see 
God  in  a  three-fold  form,  as  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Spirit,  no  conception  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ  could  have  been  generated  in  his  mind. 
Unless  he  had  been  permitted  to  attribute  his  suf- 
ferings and  sorrows  in  some  way  to  the  Divine 
Providence,  his  faith  would  have  staggered  and 
his  love  perished  in  his  great  spiritual  struggles. 

How  can  the  existence  and  continuance  of  Evil 
be  reconciled  with  this  last,  loftiest,  and  purest 
conception  of  the  Divine  Character? 

If  human  life  was  a  power  or  force  created  by 
God  and  infused  into  an  objective  universe  of 
fora  s  called  forth  from  nothing;  if  the  creation 
was  an  external  act  of  His,  as  a  machine  is  the 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT?        241 

work  of  a  man — and  such  is  the  popular  belief; 
then  indeed  we  would  have  great  reason  to  find 
fault  with  the  result,  and  to  impeach  the  power, 
goodness,  wisdom,  and  foreknowledge  of  the  Crea- 
tor. A  universe  created  by  Infinite  Intelligence 
out  of  his  own  materials  and  on  his  own  plan,  has 
worked  so  sadly  out  of  order  in  so  short  a  time, 
that,  viewing  the  subject  from  that  stand-point, 
we  certainly  could  not  call  it  a  complete  success. 
We  should  call  it,  upon  the  whole,  a  failure. 

But  that  view  of  life  and  of  creation  is  radically 
false.  Life  is  uncreated.  God  alone  is  Life. 
His  Life  is  the  only  one  that  ever  is,  was,  or  shall 
be  fluent  in  any  organized  form,  human,  animal,  or 
vegetable.  No  other  life  is  possible.  He  does  not 
divide  it  and  give  one  portion  to  this  form  and 
another  portion  to  another.  It  is  indivisible 
and  always  the  same.  Its  myriad-fold  manifesta- 
tions depend  only  on  the  atomic  arrangement  of  the 
forms  into  which  it  flows.  It  is  not  communicated 
to  matter  and  then  transmitted  ever  after  from  one 
thing  to  another.  No:  the  whole  vitality  or  life 
of  the  universe  to-day  flows  into  it  from  God  to- 
day, from  moment  to  moment;  and  if  God  could 
possibly  cease  living  or  breathing  for  a  second,  or 

if  He  should  for  one  moment  withhold  His  influ- 
21  L 


242  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

ent  life  from  the  countless  forms  He  has  created, 
the  entire  universe  would  dissolve  into  nothing. 
The  act  of  creation  is  perpetual. 

How  then  is  Man,  the  central  figure  of  the  crea- 
tion, "  the  image  and  likeness"  of  God?  How  is  he 
different  from  God?  If  he  is  made  of  atomic  sub- 
stances proceeding  from  God,  and  animated  entirely 
by  life  flowing  in  momentarily  from  God,  is  he  not 
as  much  an  integral  part  of  the  Divine  Being  as  a 
man's  fingers  and  toes  are  integral  parts  of  his 
body?  What  can  rescue  us  from  Pantheism? 
How  can  man  enjoy  any  sense  of  individuality, 
any  feeling  of  identity,  and  a  consciousness  of 
himself? 

Right  here  lies  the  first  great  secret  of  creation, 
the  key  to  many  of  its  enigmas.  Unless  man,  in 
becoming  finite,  had  acquired  the  power  of  react- 
ing against  God,  that  is,  of  receiving  and  using 
His  influent  life  in  one  manner  or  another,  just  as 
he  pleased,  he  would  truly  have  had  no  sense  of 
his  individuality;  no  consciousness  of  his  own 
mental  operations;  he  would  have  been  a  mere 
automaton;  an  insensible,  unreflective  machine; 
and  the  object  of  the  creation  would  never  havo 
been  attained, — that  object  being  not  only  the  re- 
ception but  the  reciprocation  of  the  Divine  Love. 


WHY  DID   NOT   THE  LORD   PREVENT?         243 

That  reactive  power  is  the  free-will  or  free-agency 
of  man. 

The  free-agency  of  man  is  therefore  the  ground 
or  basis  of  his  differentiation  from  God ;  of  his 
seemingly  independent  vitality;  of  his  progressive 
life  to  or  from  the  Divine  centre,  and  of  his  moral 
responsibility. 

This  fact  is  as  broad,  deep,  original,  and  for  the 
present  almost  as  incomprehensible  a  necessity  as 
the  altogether  inexplicable  existence  of  God  Him- 
self. It  is  impossible  for  God  not  to  create;  it  is 
simply  the  law  or  mode  of  His  own  life.  It  is 
equally  impossible  for  Him  to  create  a  thinking, 
loving,  reciprocating  being,  separated  or  discreted 
from  Himself,  except  as  a  Free-Agent  capable  of 
reacting  against  the  divine  influx. 

God,  therefore,  always  preserves,  protects,  and 
respects  the  absolute  free-agency  of  man,  as  the 
only  ground  of  his  rational  and  spiritual  life.  He 
governs  him,  draws  him,  leads  him  only  by  love, 
never  by  force  or  violence.  Every  angel  in  heaven 
and  every  devil  in  hell  has  gone  to* the  exact  place 
he  now  inhabits  of  his  own  free  choice;  and  how- 
ever miserable  the  surroundings  of  the  latter  may 
be,  he  cannot  be  persuaded  to  leave  them.  This 
extreme  statement  will  show  that  man  is  permitted 


244  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

to  do  good  or  evil,  to  be  good  or  evil,  to  remain 
good  or  evil,  just  as  his  own  interior  volitions  may 
dictate.  Man  is,  therefore,  entirely  responsible  for  all 
the  violations  of  the  divine  law,  and  the  consequent 
disorders  and  miseries  which  have  created  a  hell 
and  covered  the  world  with  its  horrible  shadow. 

Whilst  the  potentiality  or  power  to  sin  is  woven 
into  the  structure  of  all  beings  in  earth  or  heaven; 
the  actuality,  the  fall  from  a  state  of  order  and 
purity  into  evil,  has  been,  according  to  Sweden- 
borg,  of  exceedingly  limited  extent.  Myriads  of 
myriads  of  beautiful  worlds,  the  light  of  whose 
suns  comes  to  us  as  that  of  little  stars,  or  does  not 
reach  us  at  all,  have  been  full  for  immeasurable 
ages  of  happy  human  beings,  who  have  lived  in 
voluntary  obedience  to  the  divine  law.  They  have 
experienced  none  of  the  awful  changes  which  have 
occurred  through  sin  in  other  solar  systems,  and 
especially  on  our  globe,  the  only  one  in  the  universe 
where  it  has  been  necessary  for  the  Divine  Being 
to  incarnate  himself  as  a  Brother  Man,  to  save 
men  from  the  destruction  they  were  bringing  on 
themselves. 

Evil  thus  originates  in  the  power  man  has  of 
turning  away  the  interior  forms  of  his  spirit  from 
God.  When  a  spirit  turns  away  from  God  and 


WHY  DTD  NOT   THE  LORD   PREVENT?         245 

the  neighbor  to  self  and  the  world,  listening  to  that 
old  serpent,  our  sensual  principle,  an  organic  change 
takes  place  in  the  substance — in  what  we  may  call 
the  atomic  arrangement — of  his  spiritual  brain  ;  a 
change  as  real  as  the  pathological  changes  in  our 
tissues  in  cases  of  disease.  The  medium  is  then 
bent  or  distorted,  so  that  the  divine  life  flowing  in 
from  above  is  perverted  in  its  passage  through  the 
changed  form ;  and  is  manifested  outwardly  as 
something  more  or  less  evil  and  false  instead  of 
something  good  and  true.  The  different  proper- 
ties of  diamond  and  charcoal,  both  forms  of  carbon, 
illustrate  finely  what  changes  may  be  made  in  the 
same  substance  by  a  change  in  its  atomic  or  molecu- 
lar arrangement.  So  of  the  spirit. 

God's  life  is  the  only  life  in  heaven,  earth  and 
hell.  In  evil  forms  his  love  is  turned  into  hatred, 
his  truth  into  falsity,  his  light  into  darkness,  his 
beauty  into  deformity,  his  peace  into  trouble,  his 
felicity  into  woe.  Thus  the  healthy  and  nutritious 
blood  of  man  is  changed  into  morbid  secretions 
when  it  passes  into  some  organ  of  the  body  which 
has  been  perverted  from  its  normal  type.  Thus 
the  heat  and  light  of  the  sun,  which  are  changed 
into  the  perfume  and  beauty  of  the  flower,  passing 
through  some  vegetable  germ  deflected  from  the 

21  * 


246  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

lines  of  perfect  order,  produce  some  rank,  ugly  and 
poisonous  object. 

Evil  men  and  evil  spirits  have  moreover  tran- 
scribed their  interior  perversions  on  the  plastic  face 
of  nature;  for  all  forces  come  from  within  outward, 
and  produce  their  effects  in  the  lowest  or  natural 
sphere  of  life.  This  is  the  origin  of  all  the  evil 
things  we  see  around  us ;  the  poisons  of  the  vege- 
table world;  the  cruel  and  hideous  forms  of  animal 
life ;  the  storms,  the  floods,  the  fires ;  the  destruc- 
tive extremes  of  heat  and  cold;  the  catastrophes 
which  appall  and  overwhelm  ;  the  horrible  diseases 
which  waste  our  bodies;  and  the  painful  death 
that  awaits  our  departure.  All  these  things  are 
outward  effects,  symbolic  of  the  evil  and  false  prin- 
ciples reigning  in  the  hearts  of  men.  God  never 
causes  them  nor  brings  them  nor  sends  them.  Man 
alone  is  responsible  for  them.  No  such  things  exist 
in  heaven,  nor  on  any  physical  globe  whose  inhabit- 
ants have  always  kept  the  Divine  commandments. 
All  these  things  will  disappear  by  a  process  the 
reverse  of  that  by  which  they  came.  The  dreams 
of  the  optimist  will  be  fulfilled,  because  the  entire 
means  of  their  fulfillment  lie  in  the  enlightened 
volition  of  man  himself. 

When  men  became  so  averse  to  God  and  his 


WHY  DID  NOT   THE  LORD  PREVENT?        247. 

government  that  after  death,  they  could  not  be 
inserted  into  angelic  societies  and  made  inhabitants 
of  heaven,  they  were  permitted  to  collect  together, 
so  that  a  different  spiritual  world  could  be  created 
around  them,  as  far  from  God  and  angels  as  possi- 
ble, where  they  might  live  as  they  pleased;  and 
that  world  is  called  Hell.  It  is  a  sphere  of  horri- 
ble hatreds,  fantasies  and  sufferings,  where  all  is 
evil,  false  and  unreal.  The  inhabitants  are  there 
permitted  to  shroud  themselves  from  the  rays  of 
Divine  Love  and  Wisdom  by  dense  atmospheres 
of  evil  and  falsity,  as  the  cuttle-fish  hides  himself 
from  his  enemy  by  ejecting  a  black  fluid  all  around 
his  form.  This  is  of  the  divine  mercy ;  for  the 
divine  presence  is  a  torment  to  those  miserable 
beings.  "  Art  thou  come  hither  to  torment  us  ?  " 
is  ever  the  sorrowful  cry  of  lost  spirits  to  the 
approaching  Christ. 

This  idea,  that  hell  is  a  world  where  the  wicked 
continue  the  evil  life  they  began  here,  and  where 
the  wail  of  the  infinite  divine  pity  mingles  softly 
with  the  lamentations  of  the  self-destroyed;  this 
beautiful  idea  is  offensive  to  the  Christian  mind 
which  has  been  cast  in  the  Israelitish  mould.  Such 
a  mind  believes  that  hell  is  a  place  of  fearful  pun- 
ishment, which  the  divine  justice  inflicts  eternally 


248  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

on  the  incorrigible.  It  believes  that  punishment  is 
deserved;  and  that  it  is  incompatible  with  the 
dignity  and  holiness  of  the  Divine  Being  to  permit 
his  equitable  laws  to  be  violated  with  impunity. 

This  idea,  full  of  the  appearance  of  truth,  is  still 
far  below  the  truth.  There  is  darkness  in  it, — 
brought  from  the  natural,  civil  and  social  spheres 
of  our  life, — which  obscures  the  pure  spiritual  light. 
The  spiritual  idea  is,  that  evil  is  organically  its 
own  punishment.  The  awful  punishment  of  doing 
evil  is  that  you  become  evil,  so  that  you  have  no 
disposition  to  do  otherwise.  The  punishment  is  in 
your  own  state  and  in  the  restraints  which,  for  your 
own  and  others'  good,  Divine  Love  sees  it  to  be 
necessary  to  impose  upon  your  evil  lusts.  God 
does  not  inflict  punishment.  On  the  contrary,  the 
boundless  ingenuities  of  his  providence  are  continu- 
ally exercised  to  avert  it,  to  modify  it,  to  weaken 
its  violence,  and  to  deliver  from  it. 

It  is  a  terrible  idea — but  oh  how  true ! — that  sin 
perverts  and  corrupts  the  spiritual  form,  just  as 
disease  does  the  natural  body.  Look  at  the  fearful 
ravages  which  intemperance  and  licentiousness 
make  on  the  human  face ;  the  horrible  diseases  and 
sufferings  which  result  from  their  domination ;  and 
the  utter  and  pitiable  bondage  of  the  poor  victims 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LOUD  PREVENT?         249 

to  their  own  sinful  and  cruel  passions;  and  you 
have  the  whole  story  of  sin  and  its  punishment ; 
of  a  hell  begun  in  this  world  and  continued  in  the 
next;  of  that  awful  Hall  of  Eblis,  where  the 
ghastly  skeletons  in  silent  frenzy  wander  about 
in  their  black  cloaks,  each  concealing  a  burning 
heart  under  his  ribs. 

This  self-inflicted  punishment  of  sin,  originating 
from  interior  causes,  is  very  different  from  the  pun- 
ishments of  an  exterior  nature  sometimes  inflicted 
by  men  and  spirits  on  each  other.  An  instinct  of 
self-preservation  authorizes  us  to  defend  ourselves 
against  assaults  upon  what  is  peculiarly  our  own. 
Society  and  governments  defend  themselves  also 
against  assailants  of  their  life  'or  peace.  Laws  are 
made  on  this  principle  for  the  regulation  of  society, 
of  the  family,  of  the  school,  etc.  Offenders  are 
punished  according  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  the 
crime.  These  punishments  are  cruel  and  barbarous 
if  dictated  by  hatred  and  vengeance.  They  may 
be  very  wise  and  humane  if  prevention  and  reform 
are  the  real  ends  in  view.  It  is  from  this  purely 
finite  and  external  conception  of  human  justice  and 
self-defence,  that  man  has  devised  the  monstrous 
idea  that  God's  infinite  justice  demands  an  infinite 

punishment. 

L* 


250  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

Truly  His  ways  are  not  as  our  ways;  nor  His 
thoughts  as  our  thoughts.  There  are  no  visitations 
of  God  but  those  of  mercy.  War,  famine,  pesti- 
lence, as  well  as  individual  suffering  and  death, 
have  no  traces  of  the  divine  vengeance  in  their 
awful  steps,  but  only  those  of  the  infernal  spheres 
engendered  by  evil  spirits  and  evil  men. 

These  external  punishments  are  sometimes  terri- 
ble in  the  hells.  Evil  spirits  hate  and  love  to 
torture  each  other;  and  are  continually  experien- 
cing the  truth  of  the  spiritual  law,  that  whatever 
evil  we  design  to  inflict  on  others,  rebounds,  per- 
haps in  a  different  shape,  upon  our  own  heads. 
Comparative  order  is  maintained  in  the  societies  of 
hell  only  by  fear  and  external  bonds;  for  the  sweet 
internal  bonds  of  conscience,  veneration,  obedience 
to  God  and  respect  for  others,  have  there  no  exist- 
ence. The  punishments  inflicted  by  devils  on 
each  other  are  necessarily  severe,  for  the  repression 
of  crime  is  there  vastly  more  difficult  than  upon 
earth.  Angels,  indeed,  are  sometimes  sent  from 
heaven  to  mitigate  their  sufferings,  and  to  restrain 
the  violence  of  their  mutual  fury.  Thus  the  Lord's 
love  and  pity  abound  unchangeably  towards  angels, 
men,  and  devils. 

Well  might  the  poor  dying  sinner,  thinking-  of 


WHY  DID   NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT?         251 

the  little  golden  sun  of  his  village  Sunday-school., 
and  its  beautiful  motto  of  spiritual  gold,  exclaim: 
"I  am  afraid  of  man;  but  I  am  not  afraid  of 
God!" 

Why,  then,  exclaims  the  oppressed  soul — seeing 
the  jnrooted,  organic  nature  of  evil,  and  the  inevit- 
ability of  its  self-inflicted  punishment;  and  that 
God  has  no  hidden  hand  or  agency  or  secret  pur- 
pose in  any  evil  thing  under  the  sun — why  does 
not  God  annihilate  the  hells,  stop  the  course  of  evil 
by  violence,  rid  the  world  of  it,  and  restore  man  to 
his  primeval  state,  granting  him  a  new  beginning 
for  a  better  end? 

Have  we  always  a  clear  and  rational  idea  of  the 
Omnipotence  of  God? 

The  power  of  God  works  entirely  in  harmony 
with  the  lawrs  of  His  divine  nature.  It  is  indeed 
simply  His  laws  in  operation.  His  laws  never 
change :  His  power  is  always  the  same :  its  mani- 
festations being  determined  by  our  voluntary  state 
towards  Him.  Live  within  and  under  the  opera- 
tion of  His  divine  commandments,  which  are 
simply  the  laws  of  His  own  divine  being,  and  He 
is  all-powerful  to  save  and  bless  you.  But  turn 
away  from  Him — and  He  does  not  and  cannot 
deny  you  the  power  to  do  so — and  all  is  changed. 


252  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

His  blessings  become  curses,  not  on  account  of  His 
will  but  of  your  nature.  He  cannot  force  you  to 
accept  His  divine  love.  He  cannot  deliver  you  from 
the  consequences  of  your  sins,  except  by  withdraw- 
ing you,  with  your  own  concurrence,  from  the  sins 
themselves,  or  from  the  evil  dispositions  which 
lead  to  sin. 

He  cannot  make  a  corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good 
fruit,  because  He  cannot  violate  the  laws  of  His 
own  order.  He  cannot  prevent  a  father  from  be- 
queathing hereditary  evils  to  his  child.  He  cannot 
even  do  His  mighty  works  where  there  is  unbelief. 
This  inability  of  God  to  work  contrary  to  the  laws 
of  His  own  existence,  to  be  not  God,  is  equally 
implied  when  we  say  that  God  cannot  lie;  He  can- 
not change;  He  cannot  repent;  He  cannot  do  evil 
or  acquiesce  in  it;  no,  nor  permit  it  in  the  sense  of 
acquiescence. 

Is  it  possible  for  God  to  annihilate  any  thing? 
It  is  the  law  or  mode  of  His  divine  nature  to 
create  and  bless.  For  Him  to  stop  creating  would 
be  for  Him  to  cease  to  be.  How  can  He  destroy 
and  curse?  If  He  does  one  thing  at  one  time  and 
the  opposite  at  another,  if  His  power  is  diverted 
into  different  channels  by  exigencies  imposed  upon 
Him  by  the  conduct  of  man,  He  is  not  the  Un- 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD  PREVENT?        253 

changeable — "  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  foi 
ever."  Can  you  imagine  the  sun  withdrawing  his 
heat  and  light  from  a  portion  of  the  vegetable 
kingdom?  God  is  one  and  indivisible  and  omni- 
present. The  same  withdrawal  of  life  which 
annihilated  the  hells,  would  annihilate  the  heavens 
and  the  universe.  No.  If  there  is  cold  and  dark- 
ness anywhere  in  His  creation,  it  is  because  some 
false  medium,  self-perverted,  has  intercepted  the 
rays  of  the  Divine  Sun,  which  will  shine  on  as 
before;  and  the  cold  and  darkness  must  continue, 
until  the  medium,  touched  by  the  divine  warmth, 
shall  reopen  his  heart  and  receive  it  as  in  the 
beginning. 

Suppose  His  power  to  destroy  hell  conceded; 
would  it  be  wise  or  merciful  in  Him  to  do  so?  It 
is  commonly  supposed  that  the  devils  in  hell  would 
be  very  willing  to  be  annihilated  to  escape  their 
sufferings.  This  is  a  great  mistake.  Evil  spirits 
congregate  together  by  force  of  the  great  law  of 
affinity,  just  as  evil  men  do  here.  They  have 
chosen  their  state,  nor  do  they  wish  to  leave  it.  If 
they  were  elevated  into  heaven,  out  of  pure  mercy, 
they  would  be  suffocated  like  fish  taken  out  of  their 
own  element  into  the  air.  Their  sufferings  come 

from    their    constant    violations    of   the    law  of 
22 


254  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

• 

brotherly  love.  They  enjoy  the  pursuit  of  their 
diabolical  lusts  as  keenly  and  fiercely  as  the  tiger 
does  his  raid  on  the  village  flock,  or  the  hyena  his 
meal  in  the  village  graveyard.  Such,  moreover,  is 
the  magical  sphere  of  fantasy  in  which  they  are 
immersed,  that  they  think  themselves  pre-eminently 
beautiful,  wise,  and  great.  It  is  only  when  the 
revealing  light  of  heaven  shines  in  upon  them, 
that  they  discover  what  dreadful  monsters  they  are, 
and  call  upon  the  rocks  and  the  mountains  to  fall 
on  them  and  hide  them  from  what,  in  their  moral 
darkness,  they  call  "  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb." 

If  it  were  possible  with  God  and  earnestly  de- 
sired by  the  devils  themselves,  hell  could  not  be 
annihilated  without  destroying  the  human  race; 
nor  could  that  be  destroyed  without  involving  the 
destruction  of  the  heavens  and  the  resolution  of  all 
into  primeval  chaos.  This  will  sound  strangely  to 
those  who  are  unacquainted  with  the  structure  of 
the  spiritual  universe,  and  the  connection  of  one 
part  with  another,  as  revealed  through  Swedenborg. 
No  portion  of  the  universe  stands  alone,  or  isolated 
from  the  rest.  There  is  no  vacuum  anywhere. 
The  entire  spiritual  universe  is  based  upon  the 
physical,  and  flows  into  it  as  the  soul  into  its  body. 

The  physical  universe  was  created  first,  and  the 


WHY  DID  NOT   THE  LORD  PREVENT?        255 

spiritual  was  built  up  afterwards  as  men  by  death 
became  spirits  and  angels.  The  earth  is  the  Lord's 
footstool,  and  our  earth-life  is  the  footstool  or  secret 
basis  of  our  angelic  life  ever  after.  Such  is  the 
intimate  connection  between  the  spiritual  and  the 
natural,  that  if  the  latter  were  destroyed,  the  former 
would  also  be  dissipated.  "The  earth  is  estab- 
lished for  ever,  so  that  it  shall  not  be  moved,"  says 
the  Psalmist. 

Are  not  the  stars  to  fall  from  heaven  and  the 
earth  to  be  destroyed  at  the  Last  Day?  inquires 
the  good  Christian  literalist.  Ah,  my  friend !  that 
heaven  and  earth  are  already  passing  away ;  and  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  are  being  formed  for 
the  use  of  future  and  happier  generations.  The 
old  heaven  and  the  old  earth  on  which  Judgment 
has  been  given,  and  which  are  silently  perishing, 
are  the  internal  and  the  external  or  the  spiritual 
and  natural  forms  of  the  Apostolic  Dispensation 
of  Christianity ;  like  the  Jewish,  a  transitional 
state  of  the  Lord's  Church,  preparing  the  basis  for 
another  and  far  grander  evolution  of  Christian 
Truth  and  Life. 

Why  should  the  mere  annihilation  of  hell  destroy 
the  human  race?  It  seems  to  the  uninstructed 
mind,  that  if  the  influx  from  hell  w^e  only  with- 


wrriRsiTT) 

~*4t  Vv>* 


256  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

drawn,  man  untempted  would  spontaneously  return, 
or  be  easily  restored  to  his  original  innocence  and 
goodness.  Swedenborg  says  that  man's  life,  hered- 
itary and  acquired,  is  now  so  thoroughly  perverted, 
that  if  the  angelic  life  alone  flowed  into  his  inte- 
riors, he  would  be  thrown  into  horrible  torments, 
become  insane,  and  finally  perish.  It  was  in  this 
way  probably  that  the  whole  Assyrian  army  was 
struck  with  blindness,  and  another  one  with  frenzy; 
so  that  they  turned  each  man  upon  the  other.  The 
hells  are  permitted  to  flow  into  us  to  keep  us  alive, 
and  to  maintain  our  mental  equilibrium,  our  ra- 
tionality, our  liberty,  our  free-agency. 

This  will  appear  strange  to  those  who  know 
nothing  of  the  spiritual  side  of  psychology.  Swe- 
denborg, with  all  his  advantages  of  spiritual  obser- 
vation, needed  ocular  demonstration  of  the  fact. 
He  saw  a  newly-arrived  spirit  from  our  world 
undergo  the  experiment  of  having  his  attendant 
evil  spirits  detached  from  him.  The  man,  instead 
of  appearing  better  and  wiser  and  happier  as  we 
should  have  expected,  fell  down  as  if  dead;  nor 
could  he  think  or  feel  or  even  breathe,  until  his 
communication  with  hell  was  restored.  Such  is 
the  case  with  every  one  of  us  at  this  moment.  Our 
very  existence  depends  on  an  influx  into  us  of  life 


WHY  DID  NOT  THE  LORD    PREVENT?         257 

from  the  hells.  And  if  the  whole  infernal  world 
were  destroyed,  we  should  perish  also. 

We  may  make  our  external  or  acquired  life  as 
angelic  as  possible,  so  that  no  evil  thing  is  ultimated 
through  us ;  and  still  our  hereditary  evil,  of  which 
we  are  unconscious,  is  so  vast  that  we  can  never 
remove  it,  and  we  are  still  connected  by  it  through 
our  attendant  spirits  with  all  the  hells.  We  are 
only  disjoined  from  hell  after  death  by  the  wonder- 
ful processes  of  judgment  and  separation  which 
occur  in  the  world  of  spirits.  Men  and  devils 
stand  face  to  face,  or  side  to  side,  and  so  communi- 
cate. Angels  and  devils  by  mutual  divergence 
have  become  antipodal,  and  stand  foot  to  foot. 
They  do  not  communicate,  but  antagonize.  In 
heaven  only,  "  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and 
the  weary  are  at  rest." 

The  Lord,  therefore,  is  not  the  cause  of  evil  or 
its  consequences.  Jle  does  not  permit  it  in  the 
sense  of  acquiescing  in  or  being  satisfied  with  it. 
He  does  not  use  it  as  a  means  of  promoting  good  ; 
although  his  divine  love  never  fails  to  educe 
from  it  the  greatest  good.  He  does  not  punish  the 
authors  and  victims  of  it ;  but  forgives  them,  pities 
them,  loves  them,  and  endeavors  to  deliver  them 
from  its  bondage.  He  cannot  prevent  evil  without 

22  * 


258  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

destroying  the  free-agency  ^f  man  and  violating 
the  laws  of  His  own  being.  He  cannot  annihilate 
it  in  either  devils  or  men,  without  destroying  the 
physical  and  spiritual  universe. 

The  soul  need  not  shudder  nor  the  heart  sink  at 
this  clear,  frank  statement  of  the  truth. 

The  Divine  Love  attracts  all  men  to  itself. 
"No  man  cometh  unto  me,  except  the  Father  which 
hath  sent  me  draw  him77 — "And  I,  if  I  be  lifted 
up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me." 

The  Divine  Truth  "  enlighteneth  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world."  "In  Thy  light  shall  we 
see  light." 

The  Lord  Jesus  Christ — this  Divine  Love  and 
this  Divine  Wisdom  in  one  Glorified  Person — has 
established  for  us  processes  of  cure  and  deliverance, 
so  vast,  so  powerful,  so  certain,  that  not  only  may 
every  human  being  be  saved  now  from  the  power 
of  sin,  but  the  coming  futures  are  golden  with 
blissful  promises  of  a  perfect  Church,  an  explained 
Word,  a  restored  Eden,  a  sinless  world,  and  an 
open  Heaven.  And  even  Hell  will  be  reduced  by 
self-inflicted  sufferings  to  such  a  state  of  order  and 
obedience,  that  although  its  inhabitants  may  have 
nothing  but  a  vegetative  existence,  and  be  wrought 
into  the  Universal  Temple  as  the  sills  and  door- 


WHY  DID   NOT  THE  LOUD  PEE  VENT?         259 

posts  and  paving  stones  of  its  fabric ;  yet  there 
will  be  no  pain,  or  sickness,  or  death,  or  sorrow,  or 
crying,  in  the  infinite,  happy,  peaceful,  united 
Kingdom  of  the  Lord. 

Let  us  briefly  recapitulate  our  positions,  and  see 
how  sweet  and  serene  a  light  the  philosophy  of  Swe- 
denborg  throws  even  upon  the  darkest  questions: 

The  Lord  is  Infinite  Divine  Love  and  Wisdom, 
and  has  none  of  the  imperfect,  anthropomorphic,  or 
merely  human  qualities  necessarily  ascribed  to  Him 
in  the  letter  of  the  Word. 

He  has  no  justice  according  to  the  popular  im- 
port of  that  term, — for  His  love  and  justice  are 
identical ;  nor  does  He  regard  our  sins  as  crimes, 
offending  his  majesty  and  provoking  his  anger ;  but 
as  terrible,  self-inflicted  misfortunes,  exciting  his 
infinite  pity. 

The  free-agency  of  man  is  as  necessary  and  fun- 
damental as  the  self-existence  of  God;  and  the 
self-perverted  Will  of  man  is  the  source  of  all 
evil. 

Evil  is  permitted  to  continue,  because  God  can- 
not violate  the  free-agency  of  man, — the  ground  of 
his  individuality,  of  his  moral  responsibility,  and 
of  the  possibility  of  his  final  salvation. 

The  Lord  alone  lives.     His  Life,  received  into 


2GO  -)UR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

good  and  orderly  forms,  produces  all  the  good 
things  in  the  universe;  passing  through  evil  or 
self-perverted  forms,  it  is  changed  into  all  the  evil 
things  in  the  universe.  Thus  evil  is  its  own  pun- 
ishment and  tends  always,  through  suffering  and 
discipline,  to  its  own  abolition. 

The  Lord's  love  flows  out  to  all  alike,  the  good 
and  the  evil,  the  just  and  the  unjust;  and  no  evil 
thing  we  suffer  can  ever  be  attributed  to  Him,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly,  but  always  to  ourselves  or 
others,  to  evil  men  or  evil  spirits ;  for  his  provi- 
dence is  for  ever  leading  men  out  of  evil  and  not 
into  it. 

When  we  proceed  to  investigate  the  causes  of 
suffering  and  death  in  the  world,  even  the  death  of 
innocent  little  children,  we  shall  take  these  shining 
truths  along  with  us,  and  others  drawn  from  the 
sacred  storehouse  of  the  Word,  to  dissipate  the 
darkness  of  our  natural  minds,  to  correct  our  errors, 
and  to  still  further  "  vindicate  the  ways  of  God  to 
man."  If  we  are  made  humble  by  painful  revela- 
tions of  our  Inner  Life,  and  grateful  by  continued 
manifestations  of  the  Divine  Goodness,  we  shall 
realize  the  truth  and  beauty  of  the  poor  Sunday- 
school  scholar's  religion, 

"GOD  IS  LOVE." 


CHAPTER    IX. 

WHY     DID     THEY     DIE? 

YTTHAT  heart  or  mind  was  ever  really  satisfied 
'  '  with  the  reasons  assigned  by  theologians  for 
the  death  of  children? 

Who  can  believe  that  the  Lord  takes  some  infants 
away  to  save  them  from  the  evil  to  come,  when  He 
leaves  others  to  grow  up  and  become  wicked  men 
and  finally  lost  spirits? 

Or  that  He  would  ever  punish  any  sin  in  the 
parent  by  tearing  his  child  from  him? 

Or  that  the  fearful  suffering  and  mortality 
amongst  our  little  ones,  is  in  any  way  necessary  to 
the  welfare  of  His  Church  on  earth,  or  to  the  order 
and  strength  of  His  heavenly  kingdom? 

What  strange,  unnatural,  and  irrational  apologies 
does  the  human  mind  invent  and  fondly  regard  as 
reasons,  when  struggling  to  fortify  itself  in  its 
foregone  conclusion  that  the  will  of  God  is  the 
cause  of  our  bereavements?  It  seems  hard  to  dis- 
criminate between  the  will  of  God. and  the  volitions 

261 


262  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

of  evil  men  and  evil  spirits,  the  two  great  motor 
powers  in  the  spiritual  realm.  What  valid  reason 
is  there  that  the  death  of  infants  is  any  thing  but 
one  of  the  hideous  effects  of  sin  in  the  world, 
occurring  in  violation  of  divine  order,  like  wars, 
pestilence,  famine,  disease  in  all  its  odious  forms, 
catastrophes,  robberies,  assassinations,  etc.,  etc.? 
Surely  the  Lord  can  have  nothing  to  do  in  causing 
these  terrible  things.  His  divine  vigilance  must 
be  for  ever  exercised  to  prevent,  so  far  as  possible, 
and  to  overrule  for  the  best  after  the  fact. 

Cannot  the  New  Church  philosophy  give  us 
some  strong  and  original  light  on  this  dark  and 
difficult  question,  where  all  are  bewildered  and 
none  satisfied?  or  if  satisfied,  only  so  by  an  unin- 
telligent submission  of  the  understanding  to  a  faith 
to  which  the  affections  refuse  to  surrender. 

Be  it  distinctly  understood,  that  in  this  inquiry 
as  to  the  causes  of  the  death  of  children,  we  mean 
the  primary,  fundamental,  or  spiritual  causes,  and 
not  the  natural,  physical,  or  proximate  causes. 
These  last  are  simply  the  media  or  agents  through 
which  the  former  operate.  The  natural  causes  are 
depraved  constitutions  inherited  from  parents,  im- 
pure blood,  improper  food,  atmospheric  changes, 
filth,  exposure,  neglect,  destructive  medicines  and 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  263 

all  the  errors  of  omission  or  commission  which 
arise  from  the  ignorance,  carelessness,  or  folly  of 
mankind.  If  all  these  causes  were  removed  or 
rendered  inoperative,  no  children  would  die;  but 
that  is  impossible  until  the  spiritual  sphere  of  our 
life  is  restored  to  perfect  order  and  beauty.  Science 
can  give  our  query  only  a  superficial  answer.  For 
a  true  one  we  must  penetrate  the  laws  and  pheno- 
mena of  mind,  and  the  correspondential  relation 
between  man  and  nature. 

Swedenborg's  theory  of  causation  is  novel,  com- 
plete, and  self-sustaining;  based  on  the  Word  of 
God,  and  answering  the  intuitions  of  the  highest 
reason.  Some  of  its  elements  in  fragmentary  form, 
have  cropped  out  here  and  there  in  the  greatest 
thoughts  of  the  greatest  thinkers  in  different  ages; 
but  it  comes  from  him  as  a  grand  whole,  not  in- 
vented by  himself,  but  discovered  to  him  in  the 
light  of  that  Spiritual  World  into  which  his  mind 
had  been  lifted. 

He  teaches  dogmatically,  "from  things  heard 
and  seen,"  as  he  himself  states  it;  not  from  subtile 
imaginings  or  speculations.  He  does  not  debate 
whether  there  is  a  soul  or  a  vital  force  or  a  distinct 
will  and  understanding,  each  with  specific  propei- 
ties.  He  affirms  his  positions ;  because  he  has  bewi 


264  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

favored  with  an  inside  view:  he  has  seen  the  vital 
machinery  at  work  as  no  living  man  has  ever  seen 
it.  He  therefore  uses  simple  narrative,  not  logic 
and  rhetoric;  except  that  highest  logic  and  rhetoric 
involved  in  the  statement  of  truth,  of  which 
beauty  and  symmetry  are  the  essential  qualities. 

He  differentiates  his  philosophy  from  all  others 
by  a  fundamental  axiom. 

All  causes  exist  in  the  spiritual  world :  their 
effects  simultaneously  or  successively  in  the  natural 
world ;  and  the  two  worlds  are  connected  by  the 
correspondence  existing  between  the  spiritual  causes 
and  the  natural  effects. 

Men  have  hitherto  sought  for  causes  on  the  same 
level  or  plane  with  the  effects;  and  of  course  have 
discovered  nothing  but  coincident  effects,  apparent 
causes.  Heat  and  light,  they  say,  are  the  causes 
of  vegetation;  the  sun  is  the  cause  of  heat  and 
light;  but  they  are  silent  when  asked  the  cause  of 
the  sun.  Fever  is  the  cause  of  death,  malaria  the 
cause  of  fever,  decaying  matter  the  cause  of  malaria, 
and  so  on,  until  they  are  driven  to  the  material 
limit  of  observation  and  to  silence  again. 

What  should  we  think  of  philosophers  who  sur- 
veyed the  terrible  debris  of  a  battle-field,  and  in 
seeking  for  the  causes  of  the  strange  scene,  busied 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  265 

themselves  with  mechanical  concussions,  momenta 
of  bodies,  solutions  of  continuity,  and  other  physi- 
cal phenomena,  ignoring  entirely  the  mighty  whirl- 
winds of  human  passion  which  had  made  the  forms 
and  forces  of  nature  the  mere  agents  of  their  will ! 

When  men  will  obstinately  tread  the  old  fruit- 
less circle  of  natural  investigation,  living  and 
thinking  always  in  the  sphere  of  effects;  when 
they  shrink  back  at  the  threshold  of  the  spiritual 
world,  and  scout  the  investigation  of  spiritual 
things;  we  can  understand  the  assertion  of  Swe- 
denborg,  that  the  angels  looking  down  into  the 
minds  of  men  see  nothing  but  thick  darkness.  If 
they  have  no  spiritual  light  in  them,  how  can  they 
be  seen? 

Swedenborg  begins  with  the  Divine  Being  or 
First  Cause,  and  traces  from  Him  the  secondary 
causes  in  the  spiritual  sphere,  and  their  corre- 
sponding effects  or  apparent  causes  in  the  natural 
sphere. 

A  spiritual  Sun,  the  first  Proceeding  or  Emana- 
tion of  the  divine  sphere,  representing  the  Lord  in 
the  spiritual  world,  is  the  cause  of  the  natural  sun 
representing  the  Lord  in  nature. 

The  emanations  from  the  spiritual  Sun  are  Love 
and  Wisdom,  which  are  the  causes  of  the  corre- 

23  M 


266  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

spending  heat  and  light  emanating  from  the  natural 
sun,  and  exhibit  corresponding  properties. 

Spiritual  affinities  determining  spiritual  forms 
and  organizations,  are  the  real  causes  of  chemical 
affinities,  the  supposed  natural  cause  of  that  atomic 
arrangement  which  determines  the  properties  of 
bodies. 

The  various  passions,  emotions,  perceptions, 
thoughts,  etc.,  of  the  spiritual  spheres,  are  the  causes 
of  all  the  various  animals,  plants,  and  minerals  in 
the  world. 

The  spiritual  Progressions  of  the  Church  in 
man,  are  the  causes  of  the  Evolutions  of  Human 
History. 

These  are  given  merely  as  general  examples  of 
the  laws  by  which  the  spiritual  and  the  natural 
worlds  co-exist  and  correspond.  Each  of  them 
would  require  a  volume  for  its  elucidation.  These 
laws  are  not  to  be  proven  by  the  accumulation  of 
evidence  as  in  matters  of  natural  science.  Superior 
things  cannot  be  seen  from  inferior  things;  internal 
from  external ;  spiritual  from  natural ;  but  the  re- 
verse. Grasp  the  idea  of  spiritual  causes  and  their 
relation  to  each  other,  and  natural  phenomena  are 
lighted  up  with  a  new  beauty  and  splendor.  The 
Invisible  and  the  Visible  are  seen  to  run  parallel 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  267 

to  each  other ;  one  the  life,  the  other  the  form ;  one 
the  soul,  the  other  the  body ;  through  the  greatest 
things  and  the  least,  from  the  all-cheering  sun  to 
the  minutest  flower-leaf  and  dew-drop. 

The  poet  calls  his  beloved  one  a  rose  or  a  lily. 
It  seems  to  us  a  mere  comparison ;  but  it  may  be 
far  more.  It  may  be  symbolical,  or  an  expression 
of  the  true  relations  of  cause  and  effect  between 
the  inner  and  the  outer  worlds.  The  sweet  and 
pure  ideas  blossoming  up  in  virgin  souls  are  the 
living  causes  of  all  the  flowers  in  the  world.  The 
Lord's  love  and  wisdom  flowing  into  a  beautiful 
spiritual  form,  the  virgin  soul,  produces  a  radiant 
sisterhood  of  graceful  and  charming  thoughts. 
That  is  the  spiritual  or  causative  side.  The  sun's 
heat  and  light  representing  the  divine  love  and 
wisdom,  flowing  into  a  rose-bush  representing  the 
virgin  mind,  causes  it  to  bloom  full  of  fragrant 
roses  representing  the  beautiful  sisterhood  of  charm- 
ing thoughts.  That  is  the  natural  side  of  the 
spiritual  picture.  Thus  substance  and  shadow  run 
side  by  side  mirroring  each  other,  the  invisible 
things  of  the  creation  being  made  known  by  the 
things  that  are  visible. 

The  sum  total  of  the  good,  beautiful,  and  useful 
things  in  the  outer  world  is  the  sum  total  of  the 


268  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

good,  wise,  and  useful  operations  of  the  aggregate 
Human  Soul.  The  sum  total  of  the  evil,  ugly,  and 
destructive  things  in  nature,  is  the  sum  total  of  the 
disorderly  spiritual  activities  of  the  same  soul. 
Each  human  being,  daily  and  hourly  contributes 
his  share  to  the  aggregate  good  or  evil  in  human 
nature;  and  through  that  medium  by  corresponden- 
tial  influx,  to  all  the  good  or  evil  forces  and  forms 
which  we  see  in  the  physical  world.  The  poorest, 
humblest  Christian  on  earth,  who  cannot  contribute 
even  a  mite  to  the  treasury,  can  make  the  grass 
grow  and  the  flowers  bloom  for  the  benefit  of  others, 
by  the  cultivation  of  gentle  affections  and  pure 
thoughts  in  his  own  soul.  It  is  the  righteous  alone 
who  save  the  cities  of  our  earth,  day  by  day,  from 
the  fate  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah. 

This  is  not  poetry  but  fact,  and  fact  of  the 
deepest  significance.  We  cannot  point  out  the 
exact  uses  or  beauties  in  the  outer  realm,  of  which 
this  or  that  man  or  woman  is  the  efficient  cause.  We 
cannot  say,  too,  of  this  or  that  particle  of  food,  that 
it  shall  make  this  or  that  portion  of  the  blood,  or 
build  up  such  or  such  an  organ  and  tissue.  Every 
thing  is  received  into  a  general  reservoir,  taken  to 
the  central  heart,  and  redistributed  under  universal 
laws,  according  to  the  necessities  and  affinities  of 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  269 

each  remotest  and  minutest  atom.  So  it  is  in  the 
spiritual  realm,  for  the  aggregate  Human  Soul  is 
also  in  the  human  form.  If  no  sweet  and  pure 
thoughts  represented  by  roses,  were  to  be  contrib- 
uted to  the  aggregate  Human  Mind,  the  roses 
would  necessarily  disappear  from  the  world.  The 
beautiful  and  the  unbeautiful,  the  good  and  the 
evil,  continually  fluctuate  in  the  physical  sphere, 
corresponding  to  the  fluctuations  of  the  spiritual  in 
man ;  and  thence  arises  the  hope  of  the  final  ex- 
tinction of  all  unlovely  things. 

This  relation  between  the  spiritual  and  the  natural 
is  finely  illustrated  in  one  of  the  most  obscure  and 
remarkable  miracles  recorded  in  the  Word.  Our 
Lord  is  about  casting  out  a  legion  of  devils  from  a 
poor,  naked,  weeping  and  self-mutilated  lunatic. 
The  devils  beseech  Him  earnestly  to  permit  them 
to  enter  into  a  great  herd  of  swine  feeding  near  by. 
He  consents ;  and  the  swine,  losing  the  instinct  of 
self-preservation,  rush  violently  down  a  steep  place 
and  are  drowned  in  the  sea.  The  appearance  here 
is,  that  the  spiritual  bodies  of  devils  entered  into 
the  physical  bodies  of  swine  and  drove  them  madly 
to  their  destruction.  A  different  but  corresponding 
scene  occurred  on  the  other  side  of  the  veil. 

The  swine   represented  the  selfish  and   greedy 

23* 


270  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

principles  in  the  man's  mind,  which  had  invited 
the  devils  to  make  a  lodgment  there.  At  that  age 
it  is  well  known  that  devils  had  broken  from  the 
hells  and  were  crowding  up  into  the  world  of 
spirits,  where  every  man  is  as  to  his  spirit,  and 
were  thence  taking  possession  of  the  souls  and 
bodies  of  men.  This  was  one  of  the  causes  which 
necessitated  the  Lord's  incarnation.  The  Lord's 
work  in  this  seeming  miracle  was  to  deliver  the 
man  from  the  bondage  of  those  selfish  and  greedy 
lusts,  so  that  he  might  sit  at  his  feet  "  clothed  and 
in  his  right  mind."  The  devils  beg  to  be  permitted 
to  retire  into  the  hells  whence  they  came,  and  to 
remain  in  the  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  their  own 
similar  lusts.  The  Lord  consents ;  the  greedy  and 
sensual  devils  leave  the  man  and  rush  into  their 
hells,  rejoicing  to  escape  the  presence  of  the  Lord. 
The  spiritual  transaction  is  represented  in  the  phe- 
nomenal field  of  nature  by  the  herd  of  swine  rush- 
ing headlong  into  the  sea. 

So  to-day,  if  the  tiger-elernent,  the  wolf-element, 
the  snake-element,  the*  vulture-element  in  the 
human  heart,  could  be"  removed  entirely  and  at 
once  by  some  miraculous  power,  all  of  those  ob- 
noxious creatures  would  immediately  disappear 
from  the  face  of  the  earth. 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  271 

Understand  clearly,  that  no  spiritual  forces  can 
act  or  flow  outwardly  into  nature  except  through 
their  corresponding  natural  forms.  The  soul  can 
only  act  through  the  brain,  the  corresponding  natural 
form  of  its  affections  and  thoughts.  The  Lord's 
love  cannot  operate  in  creation  until  it  has  assumed 
the  natural  form  of  heat.  Evil  spheres  may  pre- 
cipitate themselves  upon  man,  but  they  cannot 
induce  bodily  disease,  until  they  obtain  a  corre- 
sponding basis  or  fulcrum  in  atmospheric  changes, 
improper  food,  malaria,  or  some  organic  virus.  The 
fallacy  of  the  sensuous  thinker  lies  in  supposing 
that  the  brain,  the  sun's  heat,  or  the  malaria,  has 
some  natural  force  or  power  of  itself,  independent 
and  separate  from  the  spiritual  forces  which  organ- 
ized and  sustained  it. 

Before  attempting  to  give  spiritual  reasons  for 
the  existence  of  disease  and  early  death  by  the 
light  of  Correspondence,  we  will  illustrate  the 
wonderful  power  of  that  knowledge,  now  restored 
for  the  reconstruction  of  Human  Thought,  by 
tracing  to  their  true  spiritual  causes  the  two 
greatest  evils  of  the  worW,  incontinence  and  in- 
temperance; the  original  fountain-heads  of  disease 
and  death;  against  which  reason,  science,  religion, 
and  law  have  warred  in  vain,  because  man  has 


272  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

never  detected  the  secret  sources  from  which  they 
spring. 

The  Religious  Idea  in  man  makes  what  is  called 
the  Church.  Every  man,  says  Swedenborg,  is  a 
Church  in  its  least  form.  Churches  are  societies  of 
men  having  various  Religious  Ideas — those  of  the 
same  society  holding  similar  ideas.  The  great  in- 
visible, universal,  catholic  Church  of  God  includes 
all  men  who  have  any  Religious  Ideas  whatever. 
They  are  arranged  spiritually  into  one  great  whole 
by  the  Lord;  those  who  receive  most  good  and 
truth  from  Him  occupying  the  centre;  those  who 
receive  less  come  next;  and  so  on  in  exact  grada- 
tion ;  until  those  who  receive  least  or  almost  none 
are  placed  in  the  remote  circumference.  Those 
who  have  the  Word  of  God  and  are  in  the  greatest 
light,  are  compared  by  Swedenborg  to  the  heart 
and  lungs  in  the  human  body,  which  are  the  great 
centres  for  the  distribution  of  life,  heat,  motion, 
and  power  to  all  the  rest. 

The  Lord's  vital  influx  is  first  into  the  Church 
and  from  the  Church  into  the  world ;  first  into  the 
Religious  Idea  of  the  individual,  and  thence  into  his 
more  exterior  organization.  And  the  secret,  interior, 
spiritual  history  of  the  Church, — which  is  so  mul- 
tiform externally  and  is  seen  as  One  only  by  the 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  273 

Lord, — is  the  key  to  all  the  evolutions  of  History 
and  of  the  entire  life  of  man,  composite  or  unitary. 
Such  as  the  Church  in  man  is,  such  will  the 
world  be. 

The  Lord  declares  that  He  is  the  Bridegroom 
and  the  Church  is  His  Bride.  This  is  not  a  meta- 
phor or  a  simile,  or  some  vague  poetical  way  of 
stating  the  case.  It  is  the  most  beautiful  and 
momentous  fact  in  the  universe.  Affections  and 
thoughts  always  go  in  married  pairs.  A  man  loves 
what  he  thinks  and  thinks  what  he  loves.  The 
Divine  Truth  or  Wisdom  is  the  Bridegroom. 
Pure  and  heavenly  affections  or  emotions,  received 
from  the  Lord,  constitute  the  heart  of  the  Church 
in  man.  The  conjunction  of  the  Divine  Wisdom 
with  these  heavenly  affections  is  the  Heavenly 
Marriage,  the  mystical  union  of  the  Bridegroom 
and  the  Bride,  of  t*he  Lord  and  His  Church.  This 
heavenly  marriage  is  the  type,  origin,  and  cause  of 
the  holy  sacrament  called  marriage  upon  earth,  in 
which  by  two  being  made  one  flesh,  a  perfect  union 
of  the  will  and  the  understanding  is  contemplated; 
the  will  of  each  party  making  one  with  the  under- 
standing of  the  other. 

The  Church  is  married  to  the  Lord  when  it 
knows  Him  truly,  and  delights  to  love,  honor,  and 

M* 


274  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

obey  Him ;  when  it  thinks  His  thoughts  and  docs 
His  will,  and  ever  looks  to  Him  and  to  Him  alone. 
What  is  true  of  the  Church  universal  is  true  of 
each  individual,  or  of  the  Church  in  its  smallest 
form.  A  perfect  image  of  this  Heavenly  Marriage, 
this  perfect  fidelity  and  chastity,  exists  in  the  rela- 
tion of  husband  and  wife  among  the  angels.  It  is 
the  model  or  pattern  for  our  earthly  endeavor;  but 
we  can  never  attain  to  it  until  we  know  the  true 
God  as  angels  do,  and  turn  our  affections  or  will 
into  eternal  harmony  with  His  Wisdom,  Truth, 
Light,  and  Law. 

This  conjunction  of  the  affections  of  man  with 
the  truths  of  the  Lord's  wisdom  is  the  spiritual 
cause  of  the  conjugial  love  in  the  sexes;  that  pure, 
chaste,  undying,  heavenly  passion,  possible  only 
between  two ;  which  in  its  turn  is  the  fountain  of 
all  the  domestic  and  social  loves  that  animate, 
unite,  enlighten,  and  beautify  human  society.  The 
possibility  of  this  heavenly  love  in  man  depends 
upon  the  approximation  he  makes  to  a  true  know- 
ledge of  God,  and  the  unition  of  the  affections  of 
his  heart  with  the  truths  he  has  received  in  his 
understanding. 

Spiritual  adultery  is  the  primal  cause  of  natural 
adultery.  The  alienation  of  the  heart's  affections 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  275 

from  the  true  God,  and  their  concentration  upon 
other  and  false  and  unworthy  objects  of  love  and 
worship,  destroys  or  deteriorates  the  Church  or 
Religious  Idea  in  man,  perverts  the  conjugial  prin- 
ciple at  its  very  origin,  darkens  the  understanding, 
and  transfers  the  domination  of  our  whole  nature 
to  the  sensual  powers,  which  were  designed  to 
occupy  the  last  and  lowest  places, — to  be  the  serv- 
ants, not  the  masters  of  the  rest.  When  the 
affections  are  turned  from  the  true  God,  they  turn 
also  from  the  true  wife;  when  they  are  fixed  upon 
spiritual  evils  and  falsities,  they  are  fixed  also  on 
the  painted  harlots  who  exteriorly  represent  them. 
Thus  it  is  that  spiritual  adultery  is  the  cause  of 
natural  adultery,  and  of  all  unchastity  in  the  sexual 
relations. 

Therefore  the  very  first  commandment,  the  first 
in  place  and  the  first  in  importance,  forbids  the 
precedence  of  any  Ruling  Love  before  that  of  the 
Lord  himself.  Whatever  a  man  loves  supremely 
is  his  god:  the  central  point  of  his  universe  to 
which  every  thing  in  the  circumference  refers  itself. 
If  he  supremely  loves  the  Lord,  the  whole  man 
from  centre  to  circumference  is  a  miniature  form 
of  heaven,  and  the  purest  love  and  the  brightest 
wisdom  flame  and  sparkle  downward  into  the  com- 


276  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

monest  act  of  his  beneficent  and  happy  life.  On 
the  other  hand,  Self,  the  World,  Riches,  Power, 
Fame,  Pleasure,  and  other  strange  idols,  are  the 
reigning  divinities  in  every  human  heart,  from 
whose  central  throne  the  Lord  is  excluded.  The 
nature  of  their  government  and  the  effect  of  their 
worship,  are  they  not  written  in  the  tears,  the 
blood,  the  lusts,  the  folly,  and  the  madness  of  the 
world? 

Spiritual  adultery  is  the  great  burden  of  the 
denunciations  of  the  Prophets  against  the  Jewish 
Church.  The  whoredoms  of  Israel,  their  love  of 
other  gods  than  the  Lord,  was  the  central  cause  of 
all  their  sins,  miseries,  and  final  destruction.  Their 
spiritual  adultery  became  so  grievous  that  the  union 
of  the  Divine  Wisdom  with  the  Jewish  Church 
could  only  be  represented  outwardly,  and  thereby 
maintained  in  fact  and  reality,  by  the  Prophet  of 
the  Lord  taking  to  his  embrace  an  adulterous 
woman.  Hosea  affirms: 

"  Then  said  the  Lord  unto  me :  Go  yet,  love  a 
woman  beloved  of  her  friend,  yet  an  adulteress ; 
according  to  the  love  of  the  Lord  toward  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel,  who  look  to  other  gods  and  love 
flagons  of  wine." 

"So  I  bought  her  to  me  for  fifteen  pieces  of 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  277 

silver  and  for  a  homer  of  barley  and  a  half  homer 
of  barley! 

"  And  I  said  unto  her,  *  Thou  shalt  abide  for  me 
many  days.  Thou  shalt  not  play  the  harlot,  and 
thou  shalt  not  be  for  another  man :  so  will  I  also 
be  for  thee.'" 

One  of  the  immediate  consequences  of  looking 
to  other  gods  is  to  "  love  flagons  of  wine : "  and 
therein  lies  the  secret  of  intemperance.  This  is 
not  clear  to  those  who  think  only  from  sensuous 
grounds,  and  do  not  know  the  relation  of  cause 
and  effect  existing  between  the  will  and  the  under- 
standing. The  will  flows  into  the  understanding 
by  interior  ways ;  and  whatever  takes  place  in  its 
sphere  is  repeated  in  a  corresponding  intellectual 
form  in  the  understanding.  Perverted  or  corrupt 
affections  in  the  will  produce  false  ideas  or  thoughts 
in  the  intellectual  plane.  This  is  the  real  origin 
of  all  the  false  doctrines  in  the  world.  Men  see 
with  the  mind  what  they  wish  to  see  with  the 
heart.  Belief  of  the  truth  "with  the  heart"  is 
saving  faith ;  and  no  other  is  saving. 

The  confused,  disorderly,  and  false  condition  of 
the  whole  intellectual  sphere,  when  it  draws  its  life 
from  evil  affections  and  selfish  passions,  is  spiritual 
drunkenness.  The  man  sees  nothing  rightly  or  in 

24 


278  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

the  right  place.  His  understanding  is  darkened : 
his  rational  faculties  blunted :  his  senses  even  report 
falsely :  and  yet  his  self-love  is  so  active  and  so 
unregulated  by  reason,  that  he  esteems  himself 
wisest,  greatest,  and  best,  when  heavenly  light  would 
reveal  him  to  be  in  the  most  shocking  and  pitiable 
mental  state. 

Swedenborg's  definition  of  a  spiritual  drunkard  is, 
"  one  who  believes  nothing  but  what  he  can  under- 
stand from  things  sensual,  scientific  or  philosophi- 
cal." When  we  reflect  that  such  is  the  exact  mental 
state  of  so  large  a  part  of  the  thinking  world,  can 
we  wonder  that  natural  drunkenness  abounds  in 
all  countries?  Babylon,  making  the  whole  earth 
drunken,  is  interpreted  by  Swedenborg's  spiritual 
law  to  mean  that  the  lust  of  spiritual  dominion, 
or  the  love  of  ruling  over  the  minds  of  men,  has 
so  falsified  the  truths  of  the  Church,  that  it  has 
filled  the  intellectual  sphere  with  errors,  fallacies 
and  insanities.  And  to  show  the  secret  interior 
connection  between  spiritual  adultery  and  spiritual 
drunkenness,  the  Word  declares  that  the  wine  with 
which  Babylon  made  the  nations  drunk,  was  "  the 
wine  of  the  wrath  of  her  fornication." 

AVhatever  is  transacted  in  the  soul  always  repeats 
and  perpetuates  itself  in  correspondential  forms  in 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  279 

the  body.  The  spiritual  drunkenness  of  the  race, 
a  state  of  errors,  fantasies,  and  hallucinations  on 
all  subjects,  is  the  real  cause  of  the  morbid  craving 
for  intoxicating  drinks  and  poisonous  drugs  which 
affects  mankind.  It  is  a  desire  to  get  away  from 
the  sphere  of  realities  and  practical  duties,  and  to 
conjure  up  around  them  a  fantastic,  unreal  world, 
where  their  selfish  loves  can  have  full  play  and 
power.  Evil  spirits  finally  get  full  possession  of 
their  victims ;  and  the  horrors  of  delirium  tremens 
are  subdued  but  genuine  pictures  of  the  methods 
by  which  the  lost  souls  delight  to  terrify  and  torture 
each  other. 

The  effect  of  this  spiritual  drunkenness  in  stupe- 
fying the  soul,  until  the  voices  of  Prophet  and 
Seer  are  disregarded,  and  the  Word  of  God  be- 
comes unintelligible  to  the  Church  and  the  world, 
is  finely  stated  by  Isaiah  : 

"Stay  yourselves  and  wonder:  cry  ye  out,  and 
cry :  They  are  drunken,  but  not  with  wine :  they 
stagger,  but  not  with  strong  drink." 

"  For  the  Lord  hath  poured  out  upon  you  the 
spirit  of  deep  sleep,  and  hath  closed  your  eyes; 
the  prophets,  and  your  rulers,  the  seers  hath,  he 
covered." 

"  And  the  vision  of  all  is  become  unto  you  as 


280  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

the  words  of  a  book  that  is  sealed,  which  men 
deliver  to  one  that  is  learned,  saying,  Read  this,  I 
pray  thee  :  and  he  saith,  I  cannot,  for  it  is  sealed  : 

"  And  the  book  is  delivered  to  him  that  is  not 
learned,  saying,  Read  this,  I  pray  thee:  and  he 
saith,  I  am  not  learned." 

What  a  photographic  picture  of  the  present  state 
of  the  Christian  world,  taken  by  the  son  of  Amoz, 
through  the  mystic  camera  of  Prophecy,  more  than 
two  thousand  years  ago ! 

Idolatry  then,  or  the  supreme  love  of  any  person, 
thing,  or  principle  other  than  the  true  God,  is  the 
cause  of  those  emotional  perversions,  which  even- 
tuate in  polygamy,  concubinage,  and  all  the  various 
forms  of  licentiousness.  These  emotional  perver- 
sions are  in  turn  the  causes  of  the  intellectual  per- 
versions characterized  as  falsities.  Thus  evil  affec- 
tions and  false  ideas  are  the  fountains  whence  flow 
the  sensual  appetites,  the  beastly  gluttony  and 
intemperance  in  all  things,  which  have  cursed  the 
world  with  misery,  disease,  and  painful  death. 

It  may  be  here  objected  that  many  a  man  is  per- 
fectly chaste  in  his  habits,  who  worships  a  false  god 
of  some  kind  with  all  his  heart  and  soul.  Also 
that  thousands  of  persons  are  distinguished  for 
temperance,  whose  minds  are  dark  as  ocean  caves 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  281 

with  all  sorts  of  false  doctrine.  This  proves  noth- 
ing ;  for  the  sphere  of  good  and  evil  are  so  mixed 
in  this  world,  that  the  interiors  and  exteriors  do 
not  correspond.  Many  a  beautiful  soul  is  here 
resident  in  a  deformed  body,  and  many  a  cruel, 
guileful  spirit  in  a  perfect  one;  but  this  will  be 
reversed  by  and  by. 

Men  are  governed  also  by  external  restraints ; 
restraints  of  law,  manners  and  customs  or  the 
usages  of  society,  by  the  ceremonial  restraints  of 
religion,  by  the  authority  of  others,  by  fear  of  the 
loss  of  health,  money,  or  reputation,  and  other 
external  motives,  which  withhold  them  from  the 
indulgence  or  ultimation  of  evil  passions  which 
really  lie  concealed  in  their  hearts.  Moreover  a 
man  may  have  all  the  elements  of  unchastity  and 
drunkenness  in  his  spiritual  nature,  and  still  his 
ruling  love  of  power  or  riches  or  position  may  so 
dominate  his  character,  that  nothing  licentious 
or  intemperate  may  ever  appear  in  his  external 
conduct. 

Nevertheless  all  men  who  worship  false  gods  and 
cherish  as  truths  the  mere  falsifications  of  truth,  are 
spiritually  adulterous  and  intemperate;  and  will  be 
found  to  be  so,  when  they  put  off  their  exteriors  at 
death,  and  come  into  their  interior  and  real  life. 

24* 


282  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

They  will  have  no  genuine  regard  for  the  marriage 
relation,  and  no  belief  in  its  pre-eminent  bearing 
upon  the  order,  beauty,  and  peace  of  the  spiritual 
universe.  All,  however,  who  have  restrained  their 
appetites  from  religious  principle  will  receive  new 
life,  new  affection,  new  thought  from  the  Lord, 
and  with  them  a  genuine,  voluntary,  eternal  spirit 
of  chastity  and  temperance,  such  as  the  angels 
enjoy. 

All  endeavors  to  exterminate  these  terrible  evils 
will  be  vain,  unless  the  blow  be  struck  at  their 
roots.  Those  roots  are  not  in  the  natural  and 
sensual  appetites  of  man,  which  ought  to  be 
amended  and  purified  by  the  enlightened  restraints 
of  law,  reason,  and  religion.  Such  is  the  erroneous 
doctrine  of  philanthropists,  who  lop  away  at  the 
leaves  and  branches,  whilst  the  tree  of  iniquity 
draws  its  secret  life  and  vigor  from  an  undiscovered 
fountain.  The  root  is  in  the  heart  and  brain  of 
the  Christian  Church.  With  all  its  love,  its 
patience,  its  zeal,  its  consecration,  it  will  labor  in 
vain  through  the  night  of  ages,  until  it  discovers 
its  error,  and  at  the  command  of  the  Lord  casts  its 
net  "upon  the  right  side  of  the  ship," 

When  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  worshiped  as 
the  Supreme  God,  and  the  old  idea  of  Him  as  a 


WHY  DID    THEY  D.rE?  283 

subordinate  and  interceding  Son  is  lost  in  the  blaze 
of  His  recognition  as  our  Heavenly  Father;  when 
the  Word  of  God  is  no  longer  a  sealed  book  to 
both  clergy  and  laity,  but  an  open  Oracle  uttering 
its  priceless  treasures  of  angelic  wisdom  to  all  men ; 
a  Fountain  in  which  ever-present  Angels  never 
cease  to  stir  the  Living  Waters;  the  heart  and 
brain  of  the  Church  on  earth  will  become  so  united 
to  the  heart  and  brain  of  the  Church  in  heaven, 
that  the  Conjugial  Life  will  become  as  possible  to 
men  as  to  angels;  and  the  fire  of  the  divine  love 
and  the  light  of  the  divine  wisdom  will  pass  down 
through  the  purified  senses  of  a  regenerate  Church 
to  deliver  and  redeem  the  world ! 

Then  shall  the  ears  of  all  men  hear  in  reality 
what  the  beloved  Apostle  heard  in  vision : 

"As  it  were  the  voice  of  a  great  multitude,  and 
as  the  voice  of  many  waters,  and  as  the  voice  of 
mighty  thunderings,  saying — ( Alleluia,  for  the 
Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth.'  r' 

Here  it  may  be  well  to  note,  before  coming 
nearer  to  the  question  we  are  to  answer,  how  we 
are  saved  from  the  sins  of  the  will  and  the  errors 
of  the  understanding  by  Prayer  and  Faith.  Prayer 
is  emotional;  faith  is  intellectual.  Prayer  turns 
the  affections  toward  God,  thus  bringing  our  wills 


284  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

into  harmony  with  His  Divine  Will.  Faith  turns 
the  intellect  to  Him,  and  submits  the  understanding 
to  the  operation  of  Divine  Truth.  Prayer  is  the 
heart,  faith  the  light,  of  the  garden  of  the  soul. 
No  matter  how  good  the  seed  or  how  rich  the  soil, 
there  will  be  neither  blossom  nor  fruit,  unless 
prayer  and  faith,  like  descending  angels,  bring 
down  to  us  the  heat  and  light  of  the  Divine  Sun. 

Why  do  we  clamor  at  the  gate  of  heaven  like 
unruly  beggars,  supplicating  for  this  or  that  earthly 
blessing?  Think  you  we  shall  be  heard  for  our 
"much  speaking?"  Does  not  our  Heavenly  Fa- 
ther know  what  we  have  need  of  before  we  ask 
Him?  Can  we  illumine  His  mind  or  refresh  His 
memory  or  change  His  intentions?  Alas!  when 
these  "long  prayers,"  these  "vain  repetitions,"  full 
of  self  and  selfishness,  are  not  answered,  we  are 
ready  to  accuse  the  Lord  of  deafness  and  blind- 
ness, and  to  fall  into  fearful  doubts  and  despairs. 

But  genuine  prayer  ? — 

Genuine  prayer  is  humility,  even  to  the  total 
abnegation  of  self,  and  the  turning  of  the  affections 
toward  the  Lord  alone.  The  change  effected  by  it 
is  altogether  in  ourselves.  It  is  a  condition  of  the 
spiritual  organism.  When  the  Lord's  love  is  per- 
mitted to  flow  into  us  and  through  us,  it  brings 


WHY  DID   THEY  DIE?  285 

with  it  all  the  blessings  we  can  receive  or  bear. 
Prayer,  then,  is  no  frenzied  wrestling  with  Jehovah 
to  compel  His  ear  or  induce  His  favor.  It  is 
merely  opening  the  door  of  the  heart.  How 
sweet !  how  simple ! — 

"Behold!  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock." 
In  exploring  the  spiritual  causes  of  incontinence 
and  intemperance,  the  typical  fountains  of  all  dis- 
ease, we  have  not  receded  from  our  subject,  but  are 
approaching  it.  We  have  rather  discovered  the 
mouths  of  the  mephitic  caverns,  whose  horrible 
exhalations  have  poisoned  the  atmosphere  of  the 
world.  All  diseases,  like  every  object  and  motion 
in  the  natural  world,  are  representative  of  spiritual 
things;  and  if  we  could  read  their  symbolism  as 
we  do  a  book,  we  would  get  at  the  whole  story  of 
moral  and  intellectual  perversions,  of  evil  and  its 
ravages  on  the  spirit  of  man. 

If  no  sin  had  appeared  in  the  world  there  would 
have  been  no  disease  or  painful  death;  because  no 
moral  law  having  been  violated,  there  would  have 
been  no  corresponding  natural  causes  of  disease. 
Swedenborg  saw  in  the  evil  portion  of  the  spiritual 
world  all  the  terrible  elements  of  our  diseases, 
although  not  a  single  natural  object,  law,  or  cause 
existed  there  for  their  generation ;  and  he  saw 


286  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

them  communicated  in  many  instances  to  the 
human  body.  Our  Lord  moreover  recognized  the 
infernal  world  as  the  true  source  of  our  diseases, 
when  He  cured  all  manner  of  morbid  affections — 
the  whole  pathological  catalogue — by  simply  cast- 
ing out  the  evil  spirits  who  had  induced  and  fixed 
them  on  the  sufferers. 

The  Christian  philosophy  nominally  attributes 
all  natural  evils,  including  sickness  and  death,  to 
sin.  But  it  has  lost  the  connecting  link  between 
the  moral  disorders  and  the  physical  disorders 
which  afflict  us.  It  fails  to  show  how  sin  produces 
its  objective  miseries.  It  ignores  spiritual  causes, 
and  explains  every  thing  by  natural  causes  almost 
as  persistently  as  the  materialist  does.  It  cannot 
understand  how  the  worship  of  strange  gods  causes 
adultery ;  how  the  falsification  of  truth  produces  a 
passion  for  strong  drink ;  how  burning  lusts  pro- 
duce burning  fevers ;  how  loss  of  spiritual  nerve- 
life  in  the  church  produces  paralysis  among  men ; 
how  every  sin  has  its  exact  outburst  and  symbol  in 
the  sufferings  and  sorrows  of  humanity ;  and  how 
there  are  cancers  and  plagues  and  hydrophobias  of 
the  soul,  the  secret  causes  of  those  horrible  diseases 
in  the  body.  Nothing  but  the  knowledge  of  cor- 
respondences can  make  all  these  things  plain. 


WHY  DID   THEY  DIE?  287 

The  materialist  thinks  he  has  accounted  for  dis- 
eases by  saying  that  they  are  the  effects  of  the  vio- 
lation of  natural  laws.  But  what  are  natural  laws? 
They  are  physical  embodiments  or  expressions  of 
moral  or  divine  laws,  just  as  heat  is  the  physical 
form  of  the  Divine  Love,  and  a  rose  the  physical 
expression  of  a  delicate  thought.  The  spiritual 
and  the  natural  are  inseparable.  No  matter  how 
good  or  wise  a  man  may  interiorly  be,  if  he  violates 
knowingly  or  unknowingly  what  we  call  a  natural 
law,  he  immediately  subjects  himself  to  the  influx 
of  those  evil  spirits  who  delight  in  the  violation  of 
its  corresponding  spiritual  law,  and  disease  may  be 
induced  upon  him. 

The  spiritual  side  to  the  philosophy  of  medicine 
is  a  subject  for  the  wiser  future.  A  positive  scien- 
tific basis  must  be  first  laid  for  it  by  observation 
and  experiment ;  just  as  the  earth  had  to  be  con- 
structed before  its  destined  inhabitant,  man,  could 
take  form  upon  it.  We  know  little  with  certainty 
at  present,  except  the  general  law,  that  evil  spheres 
or  exhalations  from  the  hells  and  from  the  spiritual 
forms  of  men,  co-operating  with  correspondential 
disorderly  movements  or  perverted  objects  in  nature, 
produce  various  morbid  effects  on  the  human  body, 
even  to  the  degree  of  destroying  its  texture,  so  that 


288  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

it  is  no  longer  capable  of  containing  the  correspond- 
ing soul. 

It  is  the  business  of  the  physician  to  study  both 
the  spiritual  and  natural  sides  of  these  strange 
phenomena:  the  spiritual  side  at  least  may  well 
engage  the  attention  of  the  theologian  and  the 
Christian.  He  will  discover  that  an  atmosphere 
of  spiritual  malaria,  more  or  less  dense  and  dark, 
encompasses  and  emanates  from  every  community, 
society,  church,  government  and  institution  among 
men.  Every  human  being  by  each  act  of  licen- 
tiousness, intemperance,  falsehood,  injustice,  cruelty 
or  any  other  crime,  contributes  his  share  to  these 
vast  volumes  of  evil  and  falsity,  which  descend 
upon  every  human  habitation,  and  combining  with 
the  putrid  exhalations  of  nature  become  the  seeds 
and  souls  of  pestilence  and  death. 

Let  us  not  be  deceived,  nor  invest  this  dark  sub- 
ject with  more  mystery  than  it  possesses.  Let  us 
not  attribute  to  the  mysterious  designs  and  inscru- 
table workings  of  Divine  Providence,  causes  which 
are  so  easily  traceable  to  our  own  doors.  Every 
unchaste  thought  we  have  nurtured,  every  resent- 
ful feeling,  every  contemptuous  expression,  every 
base  and  unworthy  passion,  has  projected  from  us  a 
spiritual  exhalation,  which  became  a  part  of  the 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  289 

direful  causes  that  blighted  the  harvests  and  flooded 
the  rivers ;  lit  the  torch  of  conflagration  and  over- 
whelmed the  traveler  on  his  way;  planted  the  seed 
of  pestilence  in  the  earth,  and  loosened  the  blood- 
hounds of  war ;  brought  the  worm  to  the  rose  of 
beauty,  and  robbed  the  mother  of  her  child. 

We  violate  all  the  commandments  of  God;  we 
live  in  utter  forgetfulness  of  his  presence  or  indif- 
ference to  his  will ;  we  permit  our  lower  natures  to 
dominate  the  higher ;  our  souls,  perverted  by  evils 
both  hereditary  and  acquired,  are  miniatures  of 
hell ;  we  are  connected  interiorly  with  myriads  of 
subtle  spirits  more  wicked  than  ourselves ;  and  our 
combined  spheres  radiate  forth  the  most  terrible 
spiritual  poisons  which  render  active  the  similar 
forms  of  nature :  and  still  we  stand  aghast  at  the 
plagues  which  ravage  our  cities,  the  social  evils 
which  corrupt  society,  and  the  angels  of  death  that 
desolate  our  hearthstones.  In  our  moral  blindness 
we  even  persuade  ourselves  that  these  curses  are 
blessings  in  disguise — the  visitations  or  provi- 
dences or  messengers  of  God ! 

Death  !  What  a  complex  phenomenon  !  Who 
can  unravel  its  mysteries?  What  curious  processes 
are  going  on  invisible  to  the  natural  eye !  The 

body  is  undergoing  organic  changes  which  will  soon 

25  N 


290  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

unfit  it  for  the  residence  of  the  soul.  The  iK)iil 
herself  withdraws  her  banners  from  the  outer  vails 
and  retires  to  a  citadel  unseen.  Two  angels  who 
had  followed  it  from  birth,  are  withdrawing  into 
heaven,  and  kiss  their  sweet  farewells  from  the 
opening  gates  of  pearl.  Two  evil  spirits  who  had 
beset  it  during  life,  are  being  driven  back  into  their 
hells,  and  a  whirlwind  of  suffering  and  anguish 
issues  from  the  yawning  pit. 

Another  tableau ;  and  the  angels  are  gone ;  the 
soul  is  asleep ;  the  devils  are  sinking  into  the 
abyss,  reflecting  their  own  horrible  struggles  and 
gaspings  upon  the  dying  body ;  and  then !  come 
poor  human  bereaved  ones  are  weeping  over  a 
corpse ! 

Nor  is  that  all.  The  glorious  angels  in  a  day  or 
two  gladly  welcome  their  earth-friend  to  his  hea- 
venly home,  and  show  him  the  wonderful  panorama 
of  his  own  regenerate  life.  The  human  mourners 
in  the  desolate  house  treasure  up  the  garments,  the 
pictures,  the  memory ;  the  faded  garlands  of  the 
feast,  after  the  lights  have  gone  and  the  guests 
departed.  The  devils  enter  into  the  worms  and 
deface  the  sacred  temple  of  the  body,  scowling  at 
humanity  to  the  last  through  the  skull  and  crc-oS- 
bones  of  the  grave. 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  291 

How  can  these  evil  spiritual  spheres  affect  infants 
and  little  children,  in  whom  no  actual  evils  of  life 
have  ever  been  developed  ?  Do  not  spheres  of 
innocence  and  peace  shine  through  them  from  the 
Lord?  Are  they  not  protected  from  devils  by 
these  spheres,  which  torture  the  evil  ones  who  ap- 
proach ? 

Yes — as  to  the  spirit.  No  evil  spirit  approaches 
the  little  one  to  excite  the  least  evil  or  falsity.  The 
child  has  no  moral  or  intellectual  life  of  its  own. 
It  is  not  good,  however;  for  the  choice  of  good  or 
evil  has  not  yet  arisen  in  the  will,  or  the  power  of 
analysis  in  the  understanding.  No  evil  thing  can 
find  any  basis  for  its  influx  into  any  emotions  or 
thoughts  or  actions  of  the  little,  feeble,  slowly- 
developing  creature. 

And  still  there  is  a  basis  in  that  child  for  the 
influx  of  evil  spheres — so  broad,  so  vast,  so  dread- 
ful, that  half  of  the  human  race  perish  in  early 
infancy. 

Our  Lord  descended  upon  earth;  was  born  of 
woman;  suffered  as  we  do;  was  tempted  of  devils; 
was  overwhelmed  with  sorrows,  until  He  sweat  as 
it  were  "great  drops  of  blood;"  was  crucified  and 
gave  up  the  ghost  in  darkness  and  agony.  He  was 
perfect  innocence,  perfect  goodness,  perfect  wisdom. 


292  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

How  could  the  hells  approach  Him?  How  could 
any  evil  spirits  assault  Him?  How  could  He 
suffer  and  die  as  we  do?  The  answer  to  these 
questions  will  show  us  why  little  children  perish, 
whilst  their  sweet  little  faces  are  shining  with  the 
spheres  of  innocence  and  peace. 

We  all  have  adjoined  to  us  an  hereditary  nature 
which  is  wholly  evil.  This  is  the  accumulated 
evil  and  falsity  of  our  whole  ancestry.  We  are 
born  into  this  evil  form:  it  connects  us  with  the 
hells :  it  instigates  us  to  evil  as  soon  as  we  can 
think  and  feel  in  any  determinate  manner.  We 
are  not  responsible  for  it,  except  as  we  make  some 
of  it  our  own  by  leading  the  evil  lives  of  some  of 
our  ancestors.  It  is  in  this  way  that  grandfathers 
return  in  their  grandchildren.  It  is  in  this  way 
that  the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge,  because 
the  fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes.  This  hereditary 
evil  is  transcribed  and  symbolized  in  the  structure 
of  the  infant  body.  Not  a  fibre,  not  a  muscle,  not 
a  globule  of  blood,  not  a  lineament,  not  a  hair,  but 
bears  the  infinitesimal  physical  traces  of  deviation 
from  divine  order,  and  becomes  the  means  or  basis 
of  the  influx  of  spiritual  nfalaria  into  the  organism 
on  the  least  exciting  cause. 

The  soul  comes  from  the  father,  the  body  from 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  293 

the  mother;  and  the  latter  bears,  transcribed  into  it 
from  both  parents,  the  entire  hereditary  principle. 
The  soul  of  Jesus  Christ  was  Jehovah  God — the 
Supreme  Being,  the  Father.  In  accepting  a  human 
body  from  woman,  He  took  on  Himself  our  hered- 
itary nature,  invested  Himself  as  it  were  with  the 
evil  and  false  principles  of  the  whole  race.  This 
is  represented  by  His  genealogy  given  in  Scripture, 
every  name  standing  for  whole  genera  and  species 
of  hereditary  evils.  This  brought  Him  into  con- 
tact with  all  the  hells.  This  permitted  them  to 
flow  into  Him  and  incite  Him  intensely  to  every 
evil  of  which  man  has  ever  been  guilty.  He  was 
without  sin.  No  evil  desire  or  thought  was  ever 
permitted  to  triumph.  He  cast  them  all  out.  He 
purified  His  sensuous  nature  from  all  dross.  He 
subdued  the  hereditary  nature,  so  as  to  acquire  a 
Divine  Humanity,  in  which  He  ascended  to  heaven, 
and  in  which  He  ever  stands  ready  to  deliver  us 
from  any  conceivable  evil,  hereditary  or  acquired, 
into  which  we  may  be  plunged.  Thus  He  is  "the 
Way"— "the  Resurrection  "—and  "the  Life." 

This  hereditary  evil  sphere  is  "the  Canaanite  in 
the  land,"  which  we  are  commanded  to  exterminate, 
and  against  which  we  wage  a  continued  but  inef- 
fectual warfare.  We  advance  in  regeneration  by 

25  * 


294  OUR    CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

putting  away  our  evil  states  of  life.  It  is  a  painful 
combat,  because  we  love  our  evils  and  cling  to 
them,  straining  our  understandings  to  the  utmost 
to  excuse  and  defend  them.  When  at  last  we  feel 
ourselves  getting  rid  of  them,  we  enter  to  our  dis- 
may into  states  of  pious  exaltation  and  spiritual 
pride,  and  we  find  the  new  evils  worse  than  the 
old.  The  combat  is  endless.  We  can  never  be- 
come good — never.  We  may  cut  off  the  tree  of 
evil  at  the  ground,  but  the  roots  are  indestructible, 
springing  up  for  ever  from  the  abyss  of  hell. 

How  shall  we  be  saved  from  this  terrible  night- 
mare of  spiritual  death?  The  New  Church  does 
not  credit,  nor  does  the  Word  of  God  authorize, 
those  theological  mysticisms — the  angry  Father,  the 
atoning  Son,  the  imputation  of  righteousness  by  an 
act  of  faith.  All  that  is  incomprehensible  to  those 
who  acknowledge  only  one  God — the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ — shining  for  ever  in  his  Glorified  Human 
Body.  When  we  feel  ourselves  sinking  into  hell, 
we  stretch  out  our  hands  to  the  Divine  Man  who 
walks  upon  the  sea,  and  cry  with  Peter,  "  Help, 
Lord,  or  we  perish !"  His  Divine  Human  nature, 
purified,  glorified  in  every  hereditary  principle, 
imparts  unto  us  its  own  power,  and  we  are  saved, 
not  from  the  penalty  of  sin,  but  from  the  bondage 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE*  295 

of  sin  itself.  We  lose  our  hereditary  selfish  life, 
and  receive  a  new  and  higher  life  from  the  Lord 

Infants  perish,  then,  by  the  influx  of  evil  spiritual 
spheres  into  the  sphere  of  hereditary  evil,  which 
has  its  basis  in  the  physical  structure  of  the  in- 
fantile body.  But  what  is  it  that  excites  these 
spheres  into  such  fatal  activity?  Here  again,  as  in 
the  case  of  licentiousness  and  intemperance,  we 
trace  the  real  cause  to  the  heart  of  the  Church,  or 
the  state  of  the  Religious  Idea  in  the  universal  and. 
the  individual  man.  Here  also  we  can  only  see  the 
cause  by  the  light  of  correspondence.  It  is  the 
early  and  rapid  destruction  of  the  states  of  inno- 
cence and  peace,  which  the  Lord  is  continually 
infusing  into  His  Church  as  the  vital  means  of  its 
regeneration.  The  Lord  is  daily  being  born  into 
our  hearts  as  the  infant  Jesus,  coming  to  take  on 
himself  our  hereditary  evils  and  save  us  from 
them.  But  the  Herod  of  our  perverted  natures, 
refusing  His  reign,  indignantly  commands  the 
slaughter  of  the  innocents;  and  our  Bethlehems 
are  filled  with  mourning. 

When  will  these  things  cease?  When  will 
infants  and  little  children  escape  these  terrible  tri- 
als and  sufferings,  and  live  to  vigorous  and  joyous 
manhood  and  womanhood?  Whenever  there  is  a 


206  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

Church  in  the  world  and  in  the  heart  of  man, 
which  retains  its  own  innocent  and  beautiful  child- 
hood to  old  age;  when  there  are  no  adult  faces 
marked  with  pride  and  hatred  and  sensuality;  when 
the  lion  and  the  lamb  feed  together;  when  the 
service  of  God  is  no  longer  the  gorgeous  ceremo- 
nials of  Chief  Priests  and  Scribes,  but  the  sweet 
hosannas  of  little  children  strewing  green  branches 
in  His  way ! 

If  the  divine  life  flowing  through  the  universal 
mind  of  man  produces  all  the  phenomena  of  the 
outward  world,  historical,  social,  and  physical;  if 
the  good  and  beautiful  and  useful  things  correspond 
to  the  divine  life  flowing  through  good  hearts;  and 
the  evils  around  us  correspond  to  the  same  life 
flowing  through  evil  and  wicked  souls ;  why  is  it 
that  each  does  not  always  get  his  own  exact  corre- 
spondential  surroundings?  Why  is  it  that  the 
wicked  ever  prosper  and  are  in  power,  or  that  the 
righteous  are  ever  cast  down  and  forsaken  ?  Why 
is  it  that  vice  ever  flaunts  in  purple,  or  virtue  ever 
cowers  in  rags?  Why  are  the  garments  of  the 
Angel  of  Death  ever  red  with  the  blood  of  the 
Innocents? 

No  one  can  doubt  that  all  this  is  the  result  of 
spiritual  disorder.  It  is  one  of  the  manifestations 


WHY  DID   THEY  DIE?  297 

of  hell  on  earth.  In  heaven  the  angel  desires  to 
give  all  he  has  to  others ;  to  break  every  yoke ;  to 
lift  every  burden ;  to  share  every  sorrow.  He 
never  wishes  to  impose  his  will  or  his  opinions 
upon  others.  He  leaves  every  one  in  perfect  free- 
dom, and  is  himself  the  servant  of  all.  But  spirits 
in  hell  and  unregenerate  men  on  earth  are  full  of 
self-love,  and  of  jealousy,  hatred,  contempt  or  indif- 
ference toward  others.  They  delight  to  absorb  and 
not  to  give.  They  impose,  so  far  as  they  can,  their 
will,  their  opinions,  their  sorrows,  their  burdens 
upon  others.  They  attempt  to  absorb  others'  indi- 
viduality ;  to  appropriate  their  services,  giving  them 
nothing  in  return ;  and  to  tyrannize  over  them  in 
every  way  possible.  The  tendency  of  the  evil 
sphere  is  to  fasten  itself  like  a  leech  or  a  vampire 
upon  others ;  and  whilst  drawing  their  life  out  of 
them,  to  cast  upon  them  its  own  foul  exhalations 
and  its  own  horrible  shadow. 

Hence  the  questions  of  life  and  providence  be- 
come so  obscure  and  complex.  If  each  soul  were 
isolated  from  others,  or  if  the  life  and  laws  of 
heaven  ^  prevailed  amongst  men,  the  surroundings, 
fate,  and  fortune  of  each  individual  would  be  seen 
to  be  the  perfect  counterpart  of  his  interior  being. 
Unregenerate  men  are  all  slaves ;  they  do  not  love 

N* 


298  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

nor  try  to  serve  others.  The  bondage  we  endure 
from  the  domination  of  others,  evil  men  and  evil 
spirits,  would  be  appalling  and  intolerable  if  we 
were  made  all  at  once  conscious  of  our  chains. 
Hence  the  painful  confusion  of  the  effects  or  out- 
births  which  fall  upon  the  good  and  the  evil,  the 
innocent  and  the  guilty.  Hence  we  can  trace  no 
man's  secret  thread  of  life,  and  say  why  he  suffers 
this  or  enjoys  that,  any  more  than  we  can  follow  a 
single  drop  of  the  ocean  water  in  its  course  round 
the  world.  God  alone  knows  all,  and  overrules  all 
for  the  best  consistently  with  his  own  eternal  laws 
of  wisdom  and  order. 

The  sweetest  word  in  the  language,  next  to  Love, 
is  Liberty.  God  and  his  angels  alone  respect  the 
perfect  freedom  of  man.  It  is  the  continual  effort 
of  the  Lord  to  deliver  us  from  ourselves,  our 
enemies  and  our  friends;  and  to  bring  us  into  a 
simple,  frank  and  voluntary  relation  to  Himself 
alone.  This  is  the  glorious  liberty  wherewith 
Christ  maketh  free.  To  shake  off  the  yoke  of 
spirits  and  devils ;  to  put  our  own  evil  passions  and 
falsities  under  foot ;  to  receive  from  others  and  to 
give  to  them  nothing  but  the  reflected  love  and 
wisdom  of  the  Lord ;  to  identify  cordially  our  own 
wills  and  lives  with  His  will  and  life  and  with  no 


WHY  DID    THEY  DIE?  299 

others;  this  is  to  know  and  love   the  true  God 
"  whose  service  is  perfect  freedom." 

Swedenborg  affirms  that  the  Lord  predestinates 
all  men  to  heaven;  yet  all  are  not  saved.  He  pre- 
destinates all  men  to  be  crowned  with  blessings 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave;  yet  few  or  none  attain 
such  felicity.  He  predestinates  all  men  to  live  to 
the  rounded  maturity  of  human  life ;  yet  a  large 
majority  of  them  do  not  number  half  their  allotted 
days.  If  man  had  not  sinned,  says  Swedenborg, 
he  would  have  lived  without  disease,  and  expired 
in  a  serene  old  age  without  a  particle  of  suffering. 
The  Lord's  will,  then,  has  not  been  done  in  the 
earth.  The  deaths  of  children  are  not  providences, 
but  they  result  from  the  violations  of  divine  law. 
The  Lord  does  not  provide  for  the  death  of  little 
children.  He  simply  permits  it,  as  he  does  a  thou- 
sand other  calamities  which  He  cannot  prevent 
without  infringing  upon  the  free-agency  of  man. 
To  suppose  that  He  wills  the  suffering  and  death 
of  children,  would  be  something  near  akin  to 
that  article  in  the  faith  of  the  past  Dispensation, 
thus  expressed  by  one  of  its  advocates:  "That  God 
did,  de  facto,  inflict  the  highest  torments  on  an' 
innocent,  pure,  spotless  creature,  even  the  human 
nature  of  his  own  Son."  The  New  Churchman, 


300  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

however,  may  discover  that  the  sufferings  of  Christ 
and  the  sufferings  of  little  children  can  be  clearly 
traced  to  identical  causes,  and  that  God  had  no 
active  share  in  either.  Yet  as  He  permitted  the 
former,  because  He  could  not,  consistently  with  the 
freedom  with  which  He  had  endowed  man,  prevent 
them,  so  does  He  permit  the  latter — seeking,  how- 
ever, continually  to  avert  them;  and  when  this 
cannot  be  done,  to  overrule  them  for  good. 

Nor  are  we  robbed  of  any  genuine  consolation 
by  tracing  our  sorrows  and  bereavements  to  their 
true  source,  the  evil  spheres  of  evil  spirits  and 
men,  including  especially  our  own.  We  are  greatly 
comforted  by  the  thought  that  God  is  not  the  au- 
thor of  our  woes.  We  are  delighted  to  learn  that  our 
calamities  all  result  from  violations  of  His  will — 
that  they  are  not  sent  of  God.  We  have  clearer, 
sweeter,  heavenlier  views  of  the  Lord  as  our  ever- 
sympathizing  Friend  and  Father.  We  know  that, 
before  and  after  affliction  alike,  He  gives  us  all 
the  good  we  can  receive,  never  changing  His  plan 
nor  forgetting  our  weakness.  And  we  know 
that  if  we  shun  evils  as  sins  against  Him,  He 
will  finally  deliver  us  from  the  power  of  evil, 
and  will  safely  unite  us  to  those  we  love  in  His 
heavenly  kingdom. 


WHY  DID   THEY  DIE?  301 

How  much  more  closely  are  we  drawn  to  our 
Heavenly  Father,  how  much  more  sweetly  are  AVC 
consoled,  when  we  take  a  true  view  of  the  provi- 
dence of  the  Divine  Love !  When  we  note  in  our 
calamities  and  sorrows  the  trail  of  the  serpent! 
When  we  start  from  their  ghastly  presences,  hating 
evil  as  never  before,  and  smiting  our  own  breasts 
as  "  miserable  sinners ! "  When  we  turn  for  light 
and  peace  and  consolation  to  the  Lord,  with  the 
eager,  loving,  trusting  spirit  of  Martha,  when  she 
rushed  into  the  presence  of  her  Great  Friend, 
exclaiming : 

"  Lord !  if  thou  hadst  been  here,  my  brother  had 
not  died." 

Yes.  In  His  presence  are  life  and  health  and 
strength  and  "fullness  of  joy."  He  does  not  take 
away  the  jewels  that  He  gave.  If  we  lose  them, 
it  is  through  our  own  folly  or  ignorance  or  disobe- 
dience, or  the  malign  influence  that  radiates  from 
the  hearts  of  other  sinful  men  and  evil  spirits.  Nor 
are  they  really  lost,  but  only  removed  from  the 
sensuous  sphere  and  from  our  outward  view.  And 
if  we  are  willing  to  forsake  all  and  follow  our 
.Divine  Lord  and  Master,  He  will  in  due  time 
restore  to  us  every  one  of  our  blessings,  exalted 
and  increased  a  hundred-fold. 


CHAPTER    X. 

WHAT    GOOD    CAN    COME    OF    IT? 

FT!  HE  Lord's  Providence  is  in  all  things,  the 
-*-  greatest  and  the  least.  He  notes  the  fall  of  a 
sparrow,  and  numbers  the  hairs  of  our  heads.  He 
leads  us  by  ways  unknown  to  ourselves.  Gently 
He  draws  us  from  evil  to  good.  He  showers  bless- 
ings upon  us  at  every  step  of  life,  both  before  and 
after  every  one  of  its  afflictions  and  trials.  So 
great  and  visible  is  the  spiritual  good  frequently 
derived  from  the  direst  calamities,  that  we  are 
almost  led  to  believe  that  they  were  merely  links 
in  a  vast  chain  of  beneficent  designs.  The  heart 
clings  fondly  to  the  thought  that  the  will  of  God 
has  been  done  in  all  the  events  of  life,  and  that 
everything  is  ordered  for  the  best. 

Nothing  happens,  however,  for  the  best,  but  that 
which  occurs  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  divine 
commandments.  There  are  two  elements  or  forces 
engaged  in  the  production  of  human  affairs — the 
will  of  God  and  the  volition  of  man.  When  these 

302 


WHAT  GOOD   CAN  COME   OF  IT?  303 

forces  co-operate,  we  have  an  image  of  heaven. 
When  the  volition  of  man  reacts  against  the  will 
of  God,  we  have  an  image  of  hell.  When  man 
resists  or  thwarts  the  Divine  Will,  nothing  happens 
for  the  best,  but  everything  for  the  worse  or  the 
worst.  The  quality  of  a  result  is  to  be  determined 
by  the  predominance  of  the  will  of  man  or  the  will 
of  God  in  its  production. 

The  Lord  always  designs  to  give  us  the  best. 
He  would  load  us  with  blessings  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave;  with  health  and  joy  and  riches  and 
felicity  and  long  life.  This  is  His  will  toward 
every  human  being.  If  it  fails  of  consummation, 
it  is  because  man,  in  the  exercise  of  a  free-agency 
inalienable  and  fundamental  as  the  self-existence 
of  God,  has  hindered  it.  Still  God  does  not 
change  His  plan  nor  withdraw  His  love.  After 
the  commission  of  evil,  as  before  it,  the  Lord's  love 
flows  in  as  warmly  as  at  the  first.  But  now  the 
form  is  changed,  and  the  result  is  changed  also. 
We  do  not  get  the  best  good,  but  only  the  good 
possible  under  the  circumstances;  not  the  birth- 
right blessing  which  was  bestowed  on  Jacob,  but 
only  the  second  blessing  which  was  given  to  Esau. 

A  man  is  bereft  of  his  children  by  the  malignant 
powers  of  hell,  or  by  the  spheres  of  infernal  dis- 


304  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

order  and  of  evil.  He  is  stricken  to  the  earth  by 
sorrow,  as  Paul  was  by  the  great  light  which 
arrested  him  on  his  journey.  A  gradual  change 
comes  over  his  spirit.  He  is  weaned  from  the 
world,  its  follies  and  illusions  and  insane  ambi- 
tions. His  heart  is  humbled,  and  his  nature 
softened  and  mellowed.  He  fixes  his  affections 
on  spiritual  things.  His  affliction  is  now  regarded 
as  a  blessing  in  disguise ;  and  God  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  immediate  cause  of  a  calamity  which 
was  followed  by  so  great  a  good.  This,  however, 
is  a  fallacy  drawn  from  appearances. 

God  designed  and  willed  a  far  greater  blessing 
for  that  man  than  the  one  he  attained.  The  plea- 
sures, the  duties,  the  responsibilities  of  paternity, 
enjoyed  and  exercised  in  perfect  obedience  to  the 
commandments  of  God,  would  have  developed  in 
his  soul  a  far  richer  and  purer  and  brighter  spirit- 
uality than  that  obtained  by  the  ministration  of 
sorrow.  God's  first  and  highest  blessing,  His  will 
towards  him,  was  prevented  by  evils  hereditary  or 
acquired;  and  shorn  of  much  of  its  beauty  and 
power,  it  fell  upon  the  heart  in  a  modified  and 
inferior  form. 

The  principle  involved  in  this  illustration  is  in- 
volved in  all  the  events  of  life.  After  the  self-in- 


WHAT  GOOD   CAN   COME  OF  IT?  305 

flicted  wrong  to  our  moral  natures,  called  sin,  and 
the  inevitable  calamities  and  trials  it  produces  ac- 
cording to  immutable  laws,  we  are  never  the  same 
beings  we  were  before;  we  are  not  capable  of  receiv- 
ing God's  first,  best,  and  highest  gift  which  He  had 
prepared  for  us,  but  only  some  secondary  and  inferior 
blessing.  Even  this  blessing,  however,  is  sometimes 
so  great  and  glorious,  that  we  feel  that  we  have 
not  suifered  too  much  in  its  attainment.  We  are 
satisfied  with  what  we  call  the  chastenings  of 
Providence. 

The  Lord's  love  never  ceases  to  draw  us  from 
evil  to  good,  and  to  bring  or  strive  to  bring  spiritual 
treasures  out  of  the  darkest  trials  and  keenest  suf- 
ferings. There  is  some  use  or  blessing  in  every 
thing,  in  heaven,  earth  and  hell.  Nothing  exists 
or  is  done  in  the  universe  but  by  virtue  of  God's 
influent  life,  perverted  as  it  may  be  when  passing 
through  evil  forms.  There  is  nothing  so  low,  so 
base,  so  far  from  God,  but  has  an  element  of  use  in 
it  which  connects  it  with  the  Centre  of  life  and  pre- 
serves it  from  annihilation. 

The  Lord  governs  the  earth  by  influx  through 
the  hells  as  well  as  through  the  heavens.  He  turns 
the  intense  selfishness  of  man  derived  from  hell 
into  those  vast  schemes  of  labor,  which  build  up  a 

26* 


306  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

complicated  civilization,  with  all  its  riches  and 
splendors,  its  uses  and  pleasures,  from  a  merely 
barbaric  base.  Self-love  and  love  of  the  world, 
those  master-springs  of  all  our  woes,  are  also  the 
prime  moving  forces  in  every  improvement  in  the 
arts  and  sciences,  in  manners,  institutions,  and 
governments.  But  who  would  say  that  the  Lord 
made  men  selfish  and  grasping  in  order  to  bring 
about  these  great  things  ? 

The  wildest  storm  will  purify  the  atmosphere. 
The  vilest  offal  will  enrich  the  soil.  From  the 
direst  poisons  we  extract  the  subtile  essence  which 
brings  ease  and  health  to  the  tortured  frame. 
Idolatry  preserved  alive  in  the  darkened  soul  some 
grateful  idea  of  a  God.  Slavery  had  its  uses  and 
war  its  benefits.  And  while  these  things  have 
been  permitted  in  the  providence  of  the  Lord,  who 
will  affirm  that  He  caused  the  tempest,  the  poisons, 
idolatry,  slavery,  and  war,  for  the  good  which  He 
foresaw  would  result  from  them  ? 

The  Lord  gives  us  children  for  our  sakes  as  well 
as  theirs ;  for  the  world,  for  the  church,  for  His 
heavenly  kingdom ;  for  a  vast  chain  of  beautiful 
and  beneficent  uses.  He  does  not  provide  means 
for  taking  them  from  us,  but  all  possible  means  to 
prevent  them  from  being  taken  from  us.  He  fore- 


WHAT  GOOD   CAN  COME   OF  IT?  307 

sees  that  they  will  be  taken  away  by  the  evil  forces 
which  disturb  the  peace  and  order  of  the  moral 
world;  and  He  provides  new  and  wonderful  bless- 
ings and  uses  in  the  place  of  those  which  He  was 
ready  at  first  to  shower  upon  us,  but  which,  through 
our  own  or  others7  sinfulness,  He  was  prevented 
from  doing. 

With  these  qualifications  as  to  the  origin  of  suf- 
ferings, trials,  and  early  death,  we  gratefully  accept 
all  the  true  #nd  beautiful  things  which  many 
charming  writers  have  given  us  on  the  ministry  of 
sorrow.  The  loss  of  children  is  especially  calcu- 
lated to  subdue  the  heart  to  a  heavenly  tenderness, 
to  enlarge  and  sweeten  our  sympathies  with  our 
fellow-men,  to  elevate  and  purify  the  affections,  to 
wean  the  thoughts  from  the  vain  schemes  of  our 
earth-life,  and  to  fix  our  attention,  our  hopes  and 
our  hearts  on  the  spiritual  world.  We  are  like-ly 
to  be  better  men  and  better  citizens  when  some 
society  of  angels  in  heaven  holds  our  children  as 
hostages  for  our  good  behavior  on  earth. 

It  is  needless  to  go  over  ground  which  has  been 
so  thoroughly  canvassed  by  earnest  and  spiritual 
thinkers.  It  is  our  business  rather  to  call  attention 
to  some  of  the  peculiar  blessings  and  manifest  uses 
which  may  be,  and  so  often  are,  derived  from  the 


308  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

death  of  children  as  viewed  from  the  stand-point 
of  a  new  Revelation. 

The  general  advantages  of  an  early  demise  to 
the  children  themselves  can  hardly  be  questioned. 
The  terrible  trials  and  sufferings  and  uncertainties 
of  this  life  are  all  escaped.  The  final  issue  in 
eternal  felicity  is  secured  without  the  painful 
struggles  which  our  adult  spirits  are  compelled  to 
undergo.  It  is  no  small  comfort  to  the  parental 
heart  that  the  little  one  is  safe  from  the  world's 
storms,  folded  in  the  arms  of  the  Good  Shepherd ; 
safe  from  the  infestations  of  wicked  spirits;  safe 
from  all  evil  things,  present  or  future.  The  most 
unfortunate  ones  of  earth  no  doubt  enjoy  a  secret 
satisfaction  in  the  thought,  that  their  precious  chil- 
dren have  been  led  in  flowery  paths  away  from  the 
dark  road  which  has  caused  their  own  feet  to  bleed 
and  their  strength  to  faint. 

The  addition  of  a  vast  infantile  population  to 
the  angelic  world  immeasurably  increases  the  peace, 
beauty,  joy,  and  power  of  heaven.  Every  soul 
added  to  an  angelic  society  increases  the  general 
strength  of  affection  and  thought,  the  love,  the 
wisdom,  and  the  happiness  of  all  the  members. 
How  glorious  and  beautiful  must  be  those  infantile 
heavens,  created  for  children,  in  which  the  whole 


WHAT  GOOD   CAN  COME   OF  IT?  309 

atmosphere  sparkles  with  infinitesimal  flowers  and 
images  of  sporting  infants !  How  wise  and  happy 
must  they  be  who  have  them  in  charge!  How 
sweet  and  holy  must  be  the  sphere  which  emanates 
from  those  infantile  heavens  to  the  entire  spiritual 
kingdom  of  God ! 

This  transcendent  addition  to  the  life  and  glory 
of  heaven  was  not  a  part  of  the  original  design  of 
God;  but  is  an  after-blessing,  accruing  from  His 
divine  mercy  on  the  removal  of  children  by  evil 
spheres  from  the  earthly  life.  No  children  are 
born  in  heaven.  They  are  not  needed  there  as 
essential  parts  of  its  organization.  Man  was  de- 
signed to  live  to  old  age,  and  the  work  of  our 
wicked  Herods  peoples  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  a 
manner  unforeseen  by  themselves. 

Swedenborg  describes  with  minuteness  the  very 
process  by  which  sin  brings  about  these  calamities, 
which  the  Divine  Providence  immediately  turns  to 
such  unexpected  profit: 

"As  death  [by  disease]  comes  from  no  othei 
source  but  sin,  and  sin  includes  every  thing  con- 
trary to  the  divine  order ;  it  is  therefore  evil  which 
closes  the  smallest  and  altogether  invisible  vessels 
[of  the  human  body],  of  which  the  next  greater 
vessels,  also  invisible,  are  composed ;  for  the  small- 


310  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

est  and  altogether  invisible  vessels  are  continued  to 
a  man's  interiors.  Hence  comes  the  first  and  inmost 
obstruction,  and  hence  the  inmost  vitiation  of  the 
blood.  This  vitiation,  when  it  increases,  causes 
disease,  and  at  length  death.  But  if  man  had 
lived  the  life  of  good,  his  interiors  would  be  open 
to  heaven  and  through  heaven  to  the  Lord.  Thus 
the  smallest  and  invisible  vessels  would  be  open 
also,  and  man  would  live  without  disease,  and 
would  only  decrease  to  ultimate  old  age,  until  he 
became  altogether  an  infant,  but  a  wise  one.  When 
in  such  case  the  body  could  no  longer  minister  to 
its  internal  man  or  spirit,  he  would  pass  without 
disease  out  of  his  terrestrial  body  into  a  body  such 
as  the  angels  have." 

The  sphere  of  infant  life,  sweet  and  powerful  as 
it  is  on  earth,  becomes  far  sweeter  and  more  power- 
ful in  heaven.  It  must  flow  down  into  our  spirits 
with  silent  but  incalculable  might.  If  infants  in 
heaven  are  sometimes  sent  to  infants  on  earth,  why 
may  not  our  children  be  sent  also  to  our  bewildered 
and  weary  hearts  on  errands  of  comfort  and  mercy? 
Why  may  they  not  become  ministering  spirits  to  us? 
The  influence  of  our  children  in  heaven  upon  our 
lives  on  earth,  cannot  be  estimated  or  accurately 
described;  but  it  is  a  power  in  our  hearts,  soft, 


WHAT  GOOD   CAN  COME   OF  IT?  311 

swift,  and  certain,  like  the  "  sweet  influences "  of 
Orion  and  the  Pleiades. 

The  infantile  heavens  are  of  immense  benefit  in 
antagonizing  and  subduing  the  deepest  and  most 
terrible  hells.  Whilst  living  with  us,  infants  are 
often  the  victims  of  diabolical  spheres,  against 
which  they  cannot  defend  themselves;  for  the 
order  of  influx  is  from  the  spiritual  to  the  natural, 
from  superior  to  inferior  things,  and  not  the  con- 
trary. When  elevated,  however,  to  the  celestial 
heavens  nearest  the  Lord,  their  sphere  of  innocence 
and  peace  flows  downward  into  all  the  kingdoms 
beneath',  and  the  Lord  governs  everything  in 
heaven,  earth,  and  hell  by  its  power.  The  sphere} 
of  the  celestial  angels  is  similar,  indeed  the  same, 
and  fulfills  the  same  uses;  but  the  addition  of  the 
living  and  growing  infantile  sphere  adds  vastly  to 
its  power. 

There  are  hells  so  terrible,  so  hideous,  that  they 
are  shut  up  entirely  by  the  Lord,  like  the  mouths 
of  the  lions  in  the  den  with  Daniel.  They  do  not 
communicate  with  man,  for  their  moral  poison 
would  as  instantly  corrupt  the  soul  as  the  poison 
of  the  cobra  destroys  the  body.  These  fearful 
monsters  are  probably  held  in  control  by  the  sphere 
of  the  infantile  heaven,  which  being  nearest  the 


SI 2  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

Lord  must  antagonize  that  evil  sphere  which  is 
farthest  from  Him. 

Well  may  we  be  amazed  at  the  offices  and  uses 
which  our  little  ones  may  fill  in  the  great  economy 
of  God.  We  are  almost  ready  to  think  that  these 
things  were  foreordained  of  the  Lord,  and  to  stand 
with  abashed  faces  and  silent  lips  in  the  presence 
of  such  beneficent  designs.  But  our  imaginations 
and  our  hearts  do  injustice  to  the  love,  wisdom, 
and  power  of  the  Divine  Being,  if  we  cannot  con- 
ceive that  far  greater  blessings  and  holier  states 
would  have  been  in  store  for  us,  had  man  not 
violated  the  moral  order  of  the  universe,  brought 
sin  into  the  world  with  all  its  woe,  and  created  hell 
with  all  its  horrors.  Are  we  so  overpowered  by 
the  three  Sybilline  Books  we  have  obtained,  that 
we  forget  the  six  others  we  might  have  possessed, 
but  which  we  lost  by  our  folly? 

The  chief  good  to  be  derived  from  evil  is,  that 
it  shows  us  our  own  evil  nature.  Sin  cannot  be 
put  away  or  renounced  until  it  is  discovered,  and 
its  nature  and  quality  thoroughly  understood. 
Self-knowledge  is  the  great  desideratum  in  morals; 
in  the  Christian  it  is  synonymous  with  conviction 
of  sin.  The  greatest  crimes  may  even  become 
blessings  to  the  criminals,  if  they  bring  them  to  a 


WHAT  GOOD   CAN  COME  OF  IT?  313 

clear  perception  of  the  unfathomable  hells  in  their 
own  hearts.  The  penitent  thief,  the  self-abjuring 
murderer,  is  in  a  more  salvable  state  than  the  com- 
placent worldling  or  the  self-righteous  professor  of 
religion  who  thinks  himself  better  than  other  men. 

The  moral  lesson  involved  in  the  death  of  infants 
and  little  children  is  of  vast  importance.  It  is  a 
fearful  index,  a  solemn  reminder,  not  of  what  evil 
things  we  have  done,  but  of  what  evil  creatures  we 
are.  The  moral  story  of  intemperance  is  written 
in  the  life  and  death  of  the  drunkard.  Licentious- 
ness stamps  its  terrible  seal  on  the  soul  and  body 
of  its  victim.  This  we  can  understand,  for  we  see 
the  connection  hej*e  between  cause  and  effect.  But 
it  takes  the  sufferings  and  death  of  little  children  to 
show  us  the  hideous  depravity  of  our  hereditary 
nature;  what  evil  forms  we  are,  and  how  closely 
connected  with  hell,  independently  of  any  actual 
sin  we  may  have  ever  committed. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  little  children  were  so 
near  and  dear  to  the  heart  of  Christ,  when  He  saw 
them  bearing,  like 'Himself,  the  iniquities  of  others 
in  their  own  bodies,  yet  without  sin ! 

This  fundamental  perversion  of  our  spiritual 
forms — this  original  sin,  as  it  has  been  called, 

making  it  impossible  for  us  to  become  good  or  wise 
27  0 


314  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

of  ourselves — is  a  cardinal  doctrine  of  the  Church, 
without  a  clear  recognition  of  which,  the  Word  of 
God  and  the  mission  of  Christ  will  remain  mysteries 
for  ever.  When  we  see  the  fearful  workings  of 
this  hereditary  nature,  which  connects  us  with  all 
the  hells,  so  painfully  revealed  in  the  sufferings 
and  death  of  our  beautiful  and  innocent  children ; 
and  when  we  reflect  that  the  same  inexhaustible 
fountain  of  evil  exists  in  our  own  souls,  and  that 
the  most  perfect  self-culture  can  do  nothing  to  sup- 
press or  destroy  the  plague ;  we  will  feel  the  want 
of  that  Great  Saviour,  who  took  upon  himself  our 
own  hereditary  nature  and  made  it  divine. 

In  contemplating  the  death  of  children,  we  should 
be  led  in  an  especial  manner  to  hate,  fear,  and 
avoid  sin ;  to  humble  ourselves  with  a  sense  of  our 
organic,  in-rooted,  and  terrible  moral  depravity; 
and  to  look  to  the  Lord  whose  Divine  Humanity 
is  the  life-bearing  and  power-giving  medium  be- 
tween the  Infinite  and  the  finite. 

Then  there  is  great  consolation  in  the  thought 
that  no  calamity  or  sorrow,  however  grievous,  is 
permitted  to  befall  a  single  human  being,  which  the 
Lord  cannot  and  does  not  overrule  for  the  highest 
ultimate  good  of  that  individual  or  of  others. 
Evil  spirits  are  not  permitted  to  do  any  sort  of  evil, 


WHAT  GOOD   CAN  COME   OF  IT?  315 

which  cannot  be  so  overruled.  This  reflection  may, 
in  some  measure,  assuage  our  bitterest  griefs,  and 
lighten  our  heaviest  sorrows.  Swedenborg  says: 

"The  things  which  evil  spirits  are  permitted  to 
do,  sure  only  those  which  conduce  to  the  emenda- 
tion of  man,  of  souls,  and  of  spirits  (other  things 
are  not  permitted);  all  of  which,  even  to  the 
minutest  particulars,  the  Lord  so  rules  and  governs, 
that  there  is  not  the  slightest  thing  which  they 
thus  do  as  it  were  permissively,  which  does  not  con- 
duce to  the  good  of  many,  thus  to  the  good  of  the 
universe,  and  consequently  of  all." 

"  Infernal  spirits  strive  with  all  their  power  to 
withdraw  the  good  from  heaven  and  plunge  them 
into  hell,  since  it  is  the  very  delight  of  their  life  to 
destroy  any  one  as  to  his  soul,  thus  to  eternity; 
but  not  the  smallest  permission  is  given  them  by 
the  Lord,  except  for  the  end  that  good  may  result 
therefrom.  ...  In  the  whole  spiritual  world 
the  end  which  proceeds  from  the  Lord  bears  abso- 
lute sway;  and  this  end  is,  that  nothing  whatever, 
not  even  the  smallest  circumstance,  shall  occur,  but 
that  good  may  come  of  it.  Hence  the  Lord's 
kingdom  is  called  a  kingdom  of  ends  and  uses." 

In  accordance  with  this,  the  same  enlightened 
author  tells  us  why  misfortunes  are  permitted  to 


316  OUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

befall  the  righteous,  and  how,  under  the  Divine 
Providence,  they  are  rendered  subservient  to  their 
spiritual  welfare.  Thus  he  says: 

"I  have  conversed  with  angelic  spirits  concern- 
ing the  misfortunes  or  distresses  which  befall  the 
faithful,  who,  it  is  known,  suffer  in  some  cases  as 
much  as  and  even  more  than  the  wicked.  The 
reason  why  some  of  them  ar»  thus  let  into  tempta- 
tions, was  stated  to  be  this:  that  they  might  not 
attribute  goodness  to  themselves;  for  if  they  were 
exempted,  they  would  attribute  such  exemption  to 
their  own  goodness,  and  thus  claim  merit  and 
righteousness  to  themselves.  And  that  this  may 
be  prevented,  misfortunes  and  distresses  are  per- 
mitted to  come  over  them,  that  they  may  perish  as 
to  that  life,  and  as  to  the  inordinate  love  of  wealth 
and  possessions.  But  if  they  were  not  of  such  a 
character  as  to  attribute  goodness  to  themselves, 
they  would  be  more  frequently  exempted  from 
common  misfortunes  and  distresses." 

"They  who  put  their  trust  in  the  Lord,  con- 
tinually receive  good  from  Him;  for  whatsoever 
befalls  them,  whether  it  appear  as  prosperous  or 
unprosperous,  is  still  good,  for  it  conduces  as  a 
means  to  their  eternal  felicity." 

But  the  good  to  be  derived  from  the  death  of 


WHAT  GOOD   CAN  COME   OF  IT?  317 

children,  and  indeed  from  all  other  calamities,  will 
be  greatly  enhanced  by  tracing  those  evils  boldly 
to  their  real  and  only  source — the  evil  spheres 
of  men  and  spirits.  The  Divine  desire  for  their 
death  -being  eliminated,  the  whole  responsibility  is 
thrown  upon  the  Church  in  its  greatest  and  least 
forms — the  Church  in  the  aggregate  and  in  the 
individual.  So  long  as  we  think  that  God  has 
some  sort  of  a  causative  share  in  all  the  events  of 
life,  the  evil  as  well  as  the  good,  a  strange  apathy 
overcomes  us,  and  we  sink  down  in  unthinking 
resignation  to  what  we  are  taught  to  regard  as  His 
will.  If  God  were,  in  our  minds,  freed  from  all 
complicity,  direct  or  indirect,  with  evils  or  calami- 
ties, our  awakened  moral  sense  would  seek  to  dis- 
cover, by  rigid  self-examination,  what  share  our 
own  hearts  and  lives  are  daily  contributing  to  the 
wars,  slavery,  pestilence,  famine,  catastrophes,  in- 
temperance, and  social  evils,  which  desolate  the 
world. 

The  blessings  sent  us  after  afflictions  will  be 
more  clearly  seen  and  gratefully  appreciated,  when 
we  realize  fully  the  seven-fold  light  of  the  New 
Dispensation ;  when  we  can  interpret  the  Word  of 
God  in  a  sense  above  that  of  the  letter,  judging 
not  from  the  appearance,  but  judging  righteous 

27* 


318  CUR   CHILDREN  IN  HEAVEN. 

judgment;  when  we  understand  the  laws  and 
phenomena  of  the  spiritual  life ;  and  when  we  see 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  his  Glorified  Human 
Form  as  our  Heavenly  Father. 

Infants  on  earth,  angels  in  heaven,  connecting 
one  with  the  other, — our  little  ones  have  not  lived 
or  died  in  vain.  They  complete  the  golden  circle 
of  our  spiritual  life,  leading  from  our  weary  and 
wounded  hearts  up  through  their  shining  and 
happy  heavens  to  the  great  White  Throne,  and 
back  again  from  the  Lord  himself  through  the 
diamond  auras  of  their  celestial  sphere,  down  to 
the  faith,  the  hope,  the  peace,  the  victory  of  the 
soul ! 

Glory  and  Dominion  be  unto  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 

For  ever  and  ever : 
Who  is,  and  Who  was,  and  Who  is  to  come : 

The  Almighty.    Amen. 


THE  END. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

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